Sixteen men have been repatriated to Cuba and twenty more were moved from Cayman Brac to Grand Cayman as the ministry responsible for immigration continues to navigate the ongoing crisis relating to the sharp increase in irregular landings by Cuban nationals fleeing their homeland
A Cayman Airways flight left Grand Cayman just before 10am on January 11 arriving in Havana just over a half hour later where the migrants were handed over to the Cuban authorities. The airplane then returned to Cayman Brac where it transported approximately twenty migrants who had arrived on that islands over the holiday period to Grand Cayman because of the limited resources on the smaller island to manage the current number of arrivals.
It is expected that additional repatriation flights will be arranged. Since the beginning of last year twenty-eight migrants have been repatriated and another twenty-three are being processed. it is estimated that almost 400 Cuban nationals have entered the Cayman Islands illegally, the majority of which have arrived in the last twelve months.
