Refugee influx continues
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This is a digitised version of an article from The Cayman Compass's print archive. Occasionally, the digitisation process introduces transcription errors, or other problems.
See the article in its original context from September 1994.
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Government Information Services reported at noon on Monday that there were 671 people at Tent City, 158 Cubans on Cayman Brac, 54 people in government housing and 49 still at Northward Prison.
It is believed the government is examining the prospects of housing some 200 Cubans at the Agricultural Society Pavilion in Lower Valley to alleviate the crowding at Tent City.
In other developments regarding the Cuban situation, it is believed security in the Cayman Islands has been increased and that the Cayman government has requested additional security personnel from the UK. Efforts to obtain an arrival date from government for those personnel were unsuccessful on Monday.
Government departments such as Public Works along with private industry are currently working furiously at Tent City to expand the camp. More tents, cots and bedding are on order and expected to arrive this week.
The camp was originally built to house 200 refugees. That limit was reached two weeks ago. The UK Government has shipped an additional 400 camp beds (cots) to Tent City while the Seventh Day Adventist Church provided a large tent that can handle 200 cots. Other tents, borrowed from government departments, have also been installed at Tent City.
The entire cost of the current refugee crisis has not yet been tabulated, but government said last Monday, when just 530 Cubans were here, that the tab for refugee care was running at about CI$8000 per day. Based upon that estimate, it is now costing government about CI$15,000 per day for the refugees, not counting what private
Continued on page 2 from page 1 sector contractors are being paid to expand Tent City. At that rate, it would cost Cayman CI$5.5 million per year for the Cubans, or around three percent of the annual budget. The same three percent for refugee care in the US would cost the American government approximately US$13 billion annually. Government's refugee budget of CI$200,000 and a supplement of CI$87,000 for refugee care has already been used for 1994. Additional aid is being requested from the UK.
The 932 refugees represent just over three percent of Cayman's population. Should that same percentage of arrivals reach US shores, the American government would have to accommodate 8 million Cuban refugees at a cost of about US$15 million per day or about US$5.5 billion per year.
Government's beleaguered Social Services, Tent City and Immigration staff and resources may soon get a break from the flood of refugees here. In an agreement signed last Friday with the US, Cuba agreed to halt the exodus of rafters and boat people from its shores. The Cuban government said that as of 6 a.m. on Tuesday, 13 September, no further boats or people would be allowed to leave and "force" would be used to restrain departures. But in the period before the 6 a.m. Tuesday deadline, rafts and boats that were already on beaches being prepared for departure will be allowed to leave, the Cuban government said.
The Cayman government announced last week that it had begun proceedings to repatriate Cubans here deemed to be economic migrants. The decision was made after US officials declined to accept any Cubans here into US run detention centres at Guantanamo Bay or in Panama. Any reptriations are not expected for several weeks, senior immigration officials have said.
The Cuban American National Foundation in Miami said it has asked the UK Embassy in Washington to request that no Cubans here be sent back until they have had a chance to apply for a refugee visa under the CANF Exodus Programme. The CANF also indicated it is willing to finance the care and feeding of the Cubans in the Cayman Islands while they await an Exodus visa.
