The Cayman Islands Customs and Border Control Service (CBC) repatriated twenty (20) migrants to the Republic of Cuba, today, Tuesday 31 January 2023. 

The fifteen (15) males and five (5) females and which included 2 minors, departed on the chartered Cayman Airways 737-8 from Grand Cayman at 8:15am and arrived in Cuba at 9:00am.

CBC Director Charles Clifford said “I wish to sincerely thank my CBC officers, as well as our colleagues from Workforce Opportunities & Residency Cayman (WORC) and His Majesty’s Cayman Islands Prison Services (HMCIPS), for successfully executing this repatriation operation to Cuba. Such operations are successful because of our strong working relationship with our partner agencies and additional repatriation operations are planned”.

Among the group of twenty (20) migrants were six (6) who were processed under the recent amendments to the Customs and Border Control Act (2022 Revision). Those amendments facilitate the expedited processing of those migrants who are clearly unqualified for protection under the 1957 Convention on Refugees and its 1967 Protocol as read with the Customs and Border Control Act.

Also included in the group of twenty (20) migrants was one (1) male migrant who had served time in Northward Prison for criminal offences. Irregular migrants are required to comply with the laws of the Cayman Islands. Failure to comply may result in their arrest and conviction on criminal charges. As such, there are currently three (3) migrants who have been remanded to Northward Prison for escaping lawful custody from the CBC Detention Center (formally the Immigration Detention Center IDC)