Thread: 13 Undocumented Cuban migrants reach Mona Island

13 Undocumented Cuban migrants reach Mona Island

Release Date:
December 29, 2015

Warning issued on dangers of crossing the Mona Passage

AGUADILLA, Puerto Rico – U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) issued today a public warning upon the landing in Mona Island Monday of 13 undocumented immigrants from Cuba.

U.S. Coast Guard Sector San Juan notified the Border Patrol Ramey Sector Communications Center the landing in Mona of 13 undocumented migrants, 12 adult men, and 1 adult female, all claiming to be Cuban nationals.



“Crossing the Mona Passage is a treacherous voyage filled with many dangers that pose a huge risk to migrants,” stated Ramiro Cerrillo, Ramey Sector Chief Patrol Agent. “We issue a concerned warning on the danger of traversing the Mona Passage with the hope of avoiding an unfortunate event during this holiday season.”

The USCG transported the group to the Mayaguez Port of Entry today where Border Patrol Agents from the Ramey Station assumed custody for screening and processing.

The illegal maritime smuggling ventures arriving to Puerto Rico from the Dominican Republic are ordinarily transported in rustic, homemade wooden vessels commonly referred to as "yolas." A typical yola is an unsafe vessel, generally underpowered with a single outboard motor, and overloaded with a large number of passengers (as an example, a forty foot “yola” can accommodate over one hundred persons).

According to the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC), while smuggling by sea accounts only for a small portion of overall migrant smuggling around the world, the particular dangers of irregular travel at sea make it a priority for response; due to the reported fact that more deaths occur by sea.

The Administration’s recent announcement regarding Cuba does not signify a change in the current immigration policy toward Cuba.

After admissibility processing at the Border Patrol Station, Cuban nationals will receive a Notice to Appear (NTA) before an Immigration Judge, for further proceedings under the Cuban Migration Agreement of 1995 and the Cuban Adjustment Act of 1966.

CBP maintains a robust posture regarding the enforcement of our immigration laws along the nation’s borders and coastal areas.

http://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/local-me...ch-mona-island

Thousands of stranded Cuban migrants heading for US after Central American countries sign deal

• Nicaragua, ally of Cuba, closed its border with Costa Rica in November
  
• 8,000 now trapped by the border in what Pope called 'humanitarian crisis'
• Central American countries now agreed deal to transport them to the US
• Transit starts in January but it is not yet known how many will be helped

By James Dunn For Mailonline
Published: 29 December 2015

Central American countries have agreed on a deal so that thousands of Cuban migrants stranded in Costa Rica can continue on their journey to the US next month.

Ministers agreed on the deal yesterday which will free an estimated 8,000 people fleeing Cuba, who have been stuck there since November, when neighbouring Nicaragua closed its border.

The nations met in Guatemala City and agreed to provide flights to El Salvador for the migrants, where they will then be ferried to Mexico by bus, Costa Rica's Foreign Ministry confirmed.


Central American countries have agreed on a deal so that thousands of Cuban migrants stranded in Cost Rica (pictured yesterday) can continue on their journey to the US next month


Ministers agreed on the deal yesterday which will free an estimated 8,000 people fleeing Cuba, who have been stuck there since November, when neighbouring Nicaragua closed its border



Costa Rica's foreign minister, Manuel Gonzalez (pictured), said: 'The solution emerging is an absolute exception and only for those people who entered national territory legally'

The program is due to begin during the first week in January, the governments of Guatemala and Mexico said, and may finally end the crisis which has left many migrants living in tents by the border.

Approximately 250 Cuban migrants will be flown to El Salvador initially, said Guatemalan Foreign Minister Carlos Morales, but it has not yet been confirmed how many will be provided in total.

Costa Rica's government, which stopped issuing transit visas to Cubans earlier this month, said providing shelter for the migrants has badly stretched local resources.

'The solution emerging is an absolute exception and only for those people who entered national territory legally,' Costa Rica's foreign minister, Manuel Gonzalez, said.

The number of migrants travelling through Costa Rica has surged since the US and Communist Cuba opened diplomatic relations after more than 50 years of hostility between the two nations.

The announcement, last December, prompted thousands of people to start the journey north, fearing preferential asylum rights given to Cubans in the US would end as the relationship develops.








But Nicaragua, a close ally of Cuba, closed its border with Costa Rica in November, and since then the number of stranded migrants in Costa Rica has steadily grown


On Sunday, Pope Francis urged the region to resolve the 'humanitarian drama' in Costa Rica quickly, but a deal has now been reached, and a transit program will start in January

But Nicaragua, a close ally of Cuba, closed its border with Costa Rica in November, and since then the number of stranded migrants in Costa Rica has steadily grown.

Officials from Panama, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Belize, Mexico, Costa Rica and the International Organization for Migration took part in the talks, Guatemala said.

It was not immediately clear how the migrants' travel will be paid for, but diplomats are expected to work out logistical details in upcoming meetings, the Mexican government said.

Mexico said the pilot program will be subject to revision.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...sign-deal.html

Costa Rica warns Cuban immigrants not to consider it an ‘open bridge’ to US


AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
29 DEC 2015 AT 20:40 ET

A man rests at a shelter where of a group of Cuban migrants are staying in La Cruz, Guanacaste, Costa Rica on Nov. 26, 2015 (AFP/Ezequiel Becerra)


Costa Rica on Tuesday warned it should not be seen as an “open bridge” to America after striking a deal to start shipping out stranded Cuban migrants to other Central American countries.

“We do not have the resources” to take in any more Cuban migrants, Costa Rican Foreign Minister Manuel Gonzalez told reporters.

The message to Cubans aiming to get to the US was “not to keep coming to Costa Rica,” he said.

Helping out the Cubans now “does not mean… we have opened the gates to everyone to flow to the United States and we are going to serve as an open bridge for them to travel to the United States.”

Gonzalez’s words came a day after Costa Rica announced it would fly out an initial group of the up to 8,000 Cuban migrants currently stuck on its territory to El Salvador, where they would be put on a bus to Guatemala then taken into Mexico for entry at the US border.

The hard-won agreement was a breakthrough after weeks of Central American nations snubbing Costa Rica’s pleas to allow the Cubans to move on.
– ‘Discretion’ over details –

The other countries involved are tight-lipped about the exercise, with Gonzalez saying they wanted “discretion”.

Gonzalez was speaking at the airport in Liberia, a city in northern Costa Rica near the border with Nicaragua, after he and President Luis Guillermo Solis met with the US ambassador, Fitzgerald Haney, and a visiting US congresswoman Kay Granger, on the issues of the Cubans and immigration policy generally.

The US officials declined to speak to AFP.
The group of Cubans was expected to depart from the airport in Liberia sometime in the middle of next week.

The Costa Rican foreign minister said the logistics of the “pilot plan” to fly out the Cubans were still being worked out, including how many would be in the initial group.

“It could be 50, 100, 200 — it depends on the size of the aircraft,” he said, adding priority would be given to “family groups.”

Gonzalez noted it was tourist high season in Central America so available plane seats for the operation were scarce, and the Cubans themselves would have to bear the cost.
– Hard-won deal –

The migrants became stranded when Nicaragua, a Cuban ally, in mid-November closed its border to them.

After a month of fruitless diplomacy with the other member nations of the Central American Integration System (SICA) to let them pass, Costa Rica suspended its political participation in the body, meant to promote regional cooperation.

It also announced that from December 18 it was no longer handing out transit visas to arriving Cuban migrants and would deport them back to their Communist-ruled island. Fifty-six are already being processed to be sent home.

On Monday, at an ad-hoc meeting of some Central American countries, Mexico and the International Organization for Migration, the deal was struck to start flying out the Cubans.

It followed an appeal last Sunday by Pope Francis for Central America to end the Cubans’ “humanitarian drama.”

The number of Cubans trying to get to the United States jumped this year, following a December 2014 announcement by Washington and Havana that they were thawing relations frozen since the Cold War.

Many Cubans fear that the rapprochement will put an end to America’s longstanding policy of taking them in if they make it over a land border.

With the US Coast Guard sending back any Cubans intercepted in the waters of the Florida Straits, Cubans increasingly have sought to make the overland journey through Central America and Mexico.

Thousands flew to Ecuador, a South American ally of Cuba’s that allowed them easy entry — until the beginning of this month, when it abruptly reinstated a visa policy.

https://www.rawstory.com/2015/12/cos...-bridge-to-us/