After three meetings and over a year the best the Cayman Islands has managed to achieve in the new Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed between Cayman and Cuba over the returning of migrants is a ‘could’, a ‘best scenario’ and ‘some fees’.

The Deputy Chief Officer in the Ministry of Home Affairs Ministry, Wesley Howell, said, “The majority of the document as it relates to Cayman is around the notification period; the information that Cuba needs to decide if they’re Cuban citizens to begin with and then to approve the repatriation of the migrants to Cuba. So that timeline which was taking on average 47 days could be as little as 16, 17 days if the best case scenario happens.”

He also said that Cuba has agreed to pay some of the travelling fees back to Cuba from Cayman of large groups of migrants when a charter flight has had to be executed. Up to now we have been stuck with the whole bill.

Between 2013/14 government spent over CI$1M to receive, process, detain and repatriate illegal migrants.

In the MOU there was also an agreement to review annually the operation and effectiveness of the agreement.

None of this, however, addresses the problem with the bad press our country is getting when no assistance including provisions can be given to Cuban migrants who appear in our waters.

“Cayman Islands continues pushing desperate escaped slaves from Cuba back out to shark-infested seas” and “The humanity and compassion of the Cayman Islands’ government is boundless” are typical of headlines in the world press.

Deputy Governor Franz Manderson has stated, “Our policy says that we do not support illegal migration, that we tell the Cubans that if they are fleeing persecution we will protect them but if they are economic migrants we will send them back to Cuba.”

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the international protection agency for refugees, has advised our government that approx. 3,000 migrants died in the Caribbean in 2014.

Only a few days ago nearly 700 migrants were drowned in the Mediterranean Sea when their overloaded boat capsized in Libyan waters south of the Italian island of Lampedusa.

So the problem is not just here.

The problem is that any humane efforts put in place does encourage illegal trafficking of migrants as it is easy money for the traffickers. If the boats capsize and persons are drowned it makes no difference to these scum as they are paid up front.

Until there is stability and more prosperity in the poor countries this problem will continue to exist.

Europe is catching condemnation on their approach in dealing with the migrant problem with headlines all pretty much saying the same thing – “Migrant Drownings Branded ‘A Stain On Europe’.

And the politicians who are not in power have a real field day including British Labour leader, Ed Milliband, who is ahead in the polls leading up to the UK General Election on May 7th.

“We are not going to rescue drowning people because we believe it is a pull factor,” Milliband retorted when he took out of context former Conservative Foreign Secretary William Hague questioning of the idea of reinstating a search and rescue mission in the Mediterranean like the Mare Nostrum that was ended last November.

Until the trafficking of migrants is stopped and prosperity and good open governance in all countries is the order of the day there will be no easy answer.

The #1 priority is the saving of human lives.

However, that was not the priority in the Cayman/Cuba MOU:

“The majority of the document as it relates to Cayman is around the notification period; the information that Cuba needs to decide if they’re Cuban citizens to begin with and then to approve the repatriation of the migrants to Cuba”!!

“Could, best and some”. Not lives.