Government’s bill for the management of Cubans who have landed illegally in Cayman crossed the $1.7 million mark at the end of August.
According to Customs and Border Control figures released to the Cayman Compass, from January to August 2023 total spent directly on managing the Cubans amounted to CI$1,446,567.09. An additional $302,011.55 was also spent on what was described as “indirect operational costs”.
CBC Director Charles Clifford, commenting on the expenditures, said Cayman continues to see the arrival of “irregular migrants, with multiple boats arriving in August and early September”.
He added, “The cost to maintain these migrants encompasses various necessities, including food, security, health care, housing and utilities, and personal supplies, among others. Our CBC Officers are diligently processing migrants and assessing their asylum claims. We are simultaneously continuing our repatriation operations to return migrants who have been denied asylum to their respective country.”
Last year, the cost to Cayman of processing, housing and repatriating Cubans cost around $3 million.
As of 18 Sept., there were 119 Cubans in Customs and Border Control’s care.
The most recent arrived on the morning of 10 Sept. when four male Cuban nationals landed in a boat at Spot Bay in Cayman Brac.
During August, a total of 20 Cubans in the Cayman Islands arrived by sea.
In Customs and Border Control’s most recent update on repatriation of Cubans, in June, the department stated that five male Cubans had been returned to Cuba – four on 8 June and one on 19 June. They were accompanied by CBC officers on non-chartered Cayman Airways flights.
To date 83 Cubans have been repatriated to Cuba this year.
Between April and mid-December last year, 353 people came to Cayman from Cuba illegally. The vast majority – 350 – applied for asylum, prompting government to amend legislation to expedite the hearing of applications.
Those legislative changes also empowered the CBC director to refuse an application if he feels it is without substance, after which the application can be certified as ‘clearly unfounded’.
That applicant is then repatriated without an option to appeal the decision to the Refugee Protection Appeals Tribunal.
The Compass published a special report on Cuban migration earlier this year which you can read here.
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