The migrant Cubans who regularly visit our shores are back again – the same ones that were here earlier this week in Cayman Brac – and it would appear two of them are past stay-overs as, according to an Immigration release, they repatriated in early January this year.

We get a certain amount of adverse publicity from the foreign press because of the current agreement, signed in 1999, that says Cuban migrant boats are allowed to pass through Cayman waters as long as they do not seek any assistance.

We give them water but no food is the outcry. We do allow them to use the bathrooms.

If they don’t leave immediately they are taken into custody and repatriated to Cuba.

The very last thing we want is to have to take them into custody.

They don’t like our facilities and we don’t like the expense of housing, feeding them and flying them back home.

We are a tiny country.

At long last new talks are in the works between us and the Cuban authorities unless they get postponed again.

The Cuban migrants are usually headed for Honduras, from where they can make the long journey overland to reach the U.S. border with Mexico. Under the U.S. “wet foot, dry foot policy,” Cuban migrants who make it onto United States soil are allowed to remain while those intercepted at sea are turned back. The US coastguards do everything possible to turn them back and this has resulted in boats sinking and lives lost.

For us to have a “wet foot, dry foot policy” would be a disaster. We would not have the resources to stop them from landing.

So what exactly are these talks going to be about?

Compensation for keeping them here? That would be a start.

However, the seemingly inhuman way we are dealing with them now has to be addressed too.

Locking them up in the Immigration Detention Centre on Fairbanks Road for an extended stay has already seen disturbances and escapes including threats from the migrants to burn the facility down.

So why doesn’t the Cuban government do their part and actively try and stop Cubans from leaving their country?

Janet Reno, LLD, U.S. Attorney General at the time of the following quote, in an Aug. 18, 1994 press release titled “Attorney’s General Statement on Cuban Influx,” asked the same question. She said:

“To divert the Cuban people from seeking democratic change, the government of Cuba has resorted to an unconscionable tactic of letting people risk their lives by leaving in flimsy vessels through the treacherous waters of the Florida Straits. Many people have lost their lives in such crossings. We urge the people of Cuba to remain home and not to fall for this callous maneuver. I want to work with all concerned including the Cuban American community to make sure the message goes out to Cubans that putting a boat or raft to sea means putting life and limb at risk… To prevent this from happening again, the Coast Guard has mounted an aggressive public information campaign so people know that vessels… may be stopped and boarded and may be seized. Individuals who violate U.S. law will be prosecuted in appropriate circumstances.”

The best solution to every problem is the source.

The Cuban migrant problem is yours Raul Castro not ours. You are just making it ours.