The currently unused immigration detention centre in Fairbanks, George Town. – Photo: Norma Connolly
Government has approved funding for a new detention centre that can house up to 250 Cubans or other nationals arriving illegally in Cayman.
The Finance Committee, chaired by Premier Juliana O’Connor-Connolly, signed off on a $2.4 million request from the Ministry of Border Control for additional funds “to develop and construct centralised housing for migrants”.
Cabinet in May agreed to the funding, but it was giving the final green light by the Finance Committee on Friday.
Ministry of Border Control Chief Officer Wesley Howell told the committee that most of the Cubans who had landed illegally in Cayman had been repatriated to Cuba, in accordance with the arrangement between Cayman and Cuba.
He said there are currently fewer than 30 Cubans in the “care and custody” of the Customs and Border Control department, and those were going through the asylum process. Two were repatriated last week, Howell added.
In response to rising numbers of Cubans arriving illegally in Cayman in recent years, the Cayman Islands government at the end of 2022 amended legislation to speed up the repatriation process.
Under the amended law, the director of Customs and Border Control can refuse an application if he feels it is without substance, after which the application is certified as ‘clearly unfounded’. That person is then repatriated without an option to appeal the decision to the Refugee Protection Appeals Tribunal.
In June this year, the Cayman Islands government also implemented a new in-transit visa system for Cubans transitting through Cayman to other countries, after it was determined that only one in four roundtrip passengers who left Havana on the airline used their return ticket back to Cuba.
Cubans have been fleeing their homeland and arriving in Cayman on makeshift boats for decades, making often perilous journeys, though the numbers have fluctuated over the years. An uptick in numbers since 2020 has waned, and the number of arrivals in Cayman appears to have decreased considerably in recent months, with none being reported publicly by Customs and Border Control since May this year.
Opposition MP Chris Saunders asked Howell if, at some point, the issue of Cubans landing in Cayman were resolved, could the centre be transformed into housing for Caymanians. Howell responded that it was likely to remain as detention centre, saying there are “other threats within the region, persons making their way here from Haiti – we’ve seen them come as close as Jamaica recently – and persons from Venezuela and other places south of us”.
He added, “What we are facing, and the risk that we have to our security, is we could be overwhelmed at any point with vessels coming in. The ones coming from Haiti, in particular, tend to be carrying more persons than the little vessels that we get from Cuba from time to time. It would not be unheard of to have a vessel with 50 or 100 persons coming in. That is what our sister territory of Turks and Caicos Islands is grappling with at this time.”
The new detention facility will be based on the site of the currently unused centre, located between the police detention centre and Fairbanks women’s prison in George Town.
Howell said the existing site is no longer in use after being damaged by detainees. The facility has been closed since the Cubans being housed there were moved to local civic centres following a fire at the facility in October last year.
“We are having to rebuild the facility so it’s fit for persons who don’t have any means of being released into the community,” Howell told lawmakers.
There was unrest among the Cuban community last year over conditions in which they are being housed and their treatment in Cayman.
One group of Cubans protested outside the government building in May this year over a number of issues, including ‘untenable’ living conditions. One protester held a banner stating, “I am a refugee, not your prisoner”.
Howell told lawmakers on Friday that his ministry already had a budget of $500,000 for planning, drafting and engineering work, saying that amount, plus the newly approved $2.4 million would be sufficient to complete the work needed at the facility.
The site will include housing for up to 200 individuals within the physical building, with enough room for tents to be erected to house 50 more.
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Publish date : 2024-10-14 18:01:00
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