Cuba MOU may be signed by ‘end of year’

Havana expects a new agreement regarding treatment and repatriation of Cuban refugees arriving in the Cayman Islands to be completed by the end of the year, according to diplomats from the island nation.

At the same time, local government hopes the new memorandum of understanding will speed processing of the refugees, achieving significant cost reductions from last year’s nearly $1 million spent on the illegal immigrants.

While Cayman Island representatives at last week’s meetings in Havana have remained largely tight-lipped about negotiations for a new MOU, Cuban diplomats said this week the document is likely to be completed in late autumn and signed thereafter.

“We hope the new MOU is signed before the end of the year,” said Bernardo Guanche Hernandez, Cuban ambassador to Jamaica.

“In any case, it will be signed when both parties agree to its terms,” he said, adding that “both parties have great interest in moving towards a more complete MOU that allows us to combat human trafficking and smuggling, and irregular migration.”

Meanwhile, deputy chief officer in the Ministry of Home Affairs, Wesley Howell, No. 2 in Cayman’s five-member delegation to the Sept. 18 and 19 talks, while reluctant to name a completion date for the document, told the Cayman Compass it was likely to achieve considerable cost savings.

“The talks between the Cayman Islands and the Republic of Cuba are still ongoing,” he said, “and it is not yet known when the new MOU will be signed.”

However, Mr. Howell said, “with faster repatriation of irregular migrants, the number of days irregular migrants are detained will be reduced, which will reduce direct costs associated with detaining the migrants.”

He said 2013 expenses for processing the Cuban arrivals in Cayman had reached almost $1 million, a figure government wants to shrink.

“The costs of receiving, processing, detaining and repatriating irregular migrants cost the Cayman Islands government approximately CI$950,000 in the last financial year,” Mr. Howell said, but was careful to preserve government’s position, acknowledging that circumstances could compromise efforts to cut expenditures.

“While we expect the cost of each person detained to go down with faster repatriation time lines, if the number of migrants requiring repatriation goes up significantly, we may also see a net increase in the costs,” he said.

Last week’s talks were led, on the Cayman side, by Deputy Governor Franz Manderson, accompanied by Mr. Howell, Attorney General Sam Bulgin, Chief Immigration Officer Linda Evans and representative Patricia Stoll from Mr. Manderson’s office.

The Cuban delegation was led by Ministry of Foreign Affairs Ambassador Rafael Dausá Céspedes, director of consular affairs and Cuban residents abroad. He was joined by Inspector of the Division of Identification, Immigration and Aliens in the Cuban Ministry of the Interior; and specialists from the Division of Consular Affairs and Cuban Residents Abroad; the General Division of Latin America and the Caribbean; and the General Division of Multilateral Affairs and International Law.

Talks to amend the original 10-point, April 1999 MOU – widely considered to be outdated – had been scheduled for January, but, according to Ambassador Guanche, had been delayed “due to scheduling conflicts, and September was the earliest date for both parties.” Neither the ambassador not Mr. Howell would comment on the particular issues at stake in the talks, which included amending an “unrealistic” seven-day time frame for notifying Havana about refugee arrivals and identifying the individuals involved, fears that any identification might compromise refugee claims for political asylum; and asylum procedures themselves.

Both spokesmen confined themselves to generalities: “The talks between the Cayman Islands and the Republic of Cuba are still ongoing,” Mr. Howell said. “As such, it would not be prudent to discuss the specifics.

“However, in general terms, the topics discussed included expediting the process for the return of irregular Cuban migrants; preventing illegal migration; and observance of the principles of the United Nations Charter.” Ambassador Guanche would say only that “the most important issue was the renegotiation of the Memorandum of Understanding on Migratory Issues.” “We are still working on the new MOU, which is slated to be approved in the coming months,” he said.

While not part of the Havana talks, Ambassador Guanche was in Cayman on Sept. 11 and 12, meeting 35 members of the Cuban community, while helping local authorities prepare for the negotiations.“I traveled to the Cayman Islands on a consular and official visit, as the Cuban Consulate in Kingston provides consular services to Cuban nationals in the Cayman Islands, where there is a large Cuban community,” Mr. Guanche said.

“I had the honor to meet with the deputy governor, the premier and other authorities who kindly received me,” he said, although minimizing the importance of the calls.

“Although, incidentally, we talked with the Cayman Islands authorities about the preparations for the visit to Cuba, from the logistical point of view, that was not the purpose of my visit to the Cayman Islands. Every year, the Cuban Ambassador to Jamaica visits the Cayman Islands,” he said.