In what was described as an extraordinary year, the Cayman Islands Government spent $896,000 on housing, feeding, medically treating and repatriating illegal Cuban migrants in the 2005-06 fiscal year.
The expenses, which span the June 2005 to June 2006 period, reflect an unprecedented high number of Cuban refugees arriving in the Cayman Islands, and were a staggering $838,000 over the $58,000 originally budgeted.
Cubans arriving on Cayman shores without sufficient supplies to continue their journey face detention and repatriation under a Memorandum of Understanding the Government has with Cuba.
The largest portion of the 2005-06 expenditures, $541,000, was spent on security for the Fairbanks detention facility. A total of $118,840 was spent on repatriation costs, which require each refugee to be accompanied by two Caymanian security officers.
Speaking in finance committee, Chief Secretary George McCarthy said migrant numbers were expected to go down this year as knowledge spread throughout Cuba about the strict Cayman policies toward Cuban migrants, and this is reflected in this year’s budget allocation of only $62,000.
Mr. McCarthy said there were no plans to make any changes to the MOU, saying that a recent visit by a Cuban delegation cemented the decision.
At the same time, the Cayman Islands government is working with the Cuban government on its institutional setup to improve repatriation timelines which have to date been incompatible.
‘We agreed that they would try to expedite the process on their end, but there is not much that can be done, and it still does not meet the speed that the Cayman Islands would like to see,’ said Mr. McCarthy.
Mr. McCarthy said that these problems will now be much less of a concern as there has been a significant decline in the numbers of Cuban refugees to date.
At present, there is only one Cuban detainee facing repatriation.
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