From Ministry of Home Affairs
Representatives of the Cayman Islands Government traveled to Belize City, Belize last week and joined other senior officials to form a group of 8 Caribbean countries as part of the United Nations Regional Consultative Process on Migration. The consultations, sponsored by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), brought together delegates from Aruba, the Bahamas, Belize, the Cayman Islands, Guyana, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, and Turks and Caicos Islands.
The Cayman Islands’ delegation consisted of Michael Ebanks, Assistant Chief Officer for the Ministry of Home Affairs and Christopher Eakin, Director of Policy and Strategic Management for the Department of Immigration.
The meeting was the first in what is envisioned as an on-going process of collaborative dialogue concerning specific migration issues. “We anticipate that human mobility will continue to grow in scope, scale, and complexity, and forums such as this allow us to find solutions for our national security within the context of the wider international arena”, said Mr. Ebanks.
Each delegation presented the current state of affairs concerning mixed migration in their respective countries, with ensuing discussions covering matters of national security such as refugee protection, trafficking in persons, human smuggling, intelligence services, and counter-terrorism.
In addition to implementing laws on trafficking in persons, human smuggling, and terrorism, the UNHCR considers the Cayman Islands as only one of two island-nations in the Caribbean that has enacted comprehensive legislation protecting asylum seekers and refugees, and the only country in the region with a functioning asylum system.
“Migration plays a significant role in Cayman’s development – presenting challenges, risks, and opportunities. For this reason we will continue to take a careful and calculated approach to managing immigration policies as part of the Ministry’s strategic objective to “Make Cayman better,” said Eric Bush, Chief Officer for the Ministry of Home Affairs.
As a result of last week’s regional meeting key substantive themes were identified. The delegates are expected to reconvene in April at which time those themes will be further analysed within the framework of the new Caribbean Migration Consultations.

IMAGE: en.wikipedia.org