About two dozen Cubans who said they were peacefully protesting outside the Government Administration Building are calling for answers to what they describe as a disproportionate demonstration of force by Customs and Border Control officers after five uniformed personnel subdued and arrested one man.
“We need answers, this is not right – he did nothing,” said one protester.
“They acted like he was the leader who needed to be silenced, but he was simply a translator,” said another.
The arrest is said to have occurred sometime after 12pm Tuesday, 30 April, some six hours into a day-long protest on the steps of the building by Cubans seeking asylum, who claim their human rights have been repeatedly violated by CBC officers.
In videos taken from different angles, a man wearing a grey hoodie can be seen at first speaking to officers, before things escalated.
“We approached [the CBC officers] as a group, very cordially, and tried to explain why we were protesting but they wouldn’t hear us out, they only wanted to talk to him,” said Thomas Martin, who has spent the past two years fighting without success to obtain asylum.
Martin told the Compass the CBC officials declined to hear them as a group, instead telling them they had 30 minutes to leave or be arrested.
“They said if we didn’t leave in 30 minutes, they would arrest us, our papers would get revoked, and we would be sent back home,” said Martin. “But it doesn’t make any sense because police came first and they only told us to stay to the left or right of the stairs and not to block the middle.”
It’s not clear how much time passed between when those comments were allegedly made by CBC officers and when the arrest occurred. However, footage shows the man backing into the crowd as officers surrounded him, taking him to the ground. A short time later, he was brought to his feet in handcuffs and led away.
“This inhumane treatment is the kind of thing that my people are having to deal with when people aren’t watching,” said Amaury Rodriguez, a Cuban refugee who was granted asylum several years ago.
According to Rodriguez, the protest was sparked by an early morning raid Tuesday at the James Manoah Bodden Civic Centre in Bodden Town, during which officers are said to have entered the sleeping quarters shortly after 3am, and rounded up the occupants before checking their identifications and arresting two of them.
The Compass has reached out to CBC seeking clarity on Tuesday’s events, but a response had not been received by press time.
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