The Tribune

By SANCHESKA BROWN

Tribune Staff Reporter

sbrown@tribunemedia.net

POLICE in Inagua, along with immigration officials, took six Cuban men into custody around 1.30am yesterday.

According to reports, the officers, acting on intelligence, arrested the men at a public dock in Inagua. They also confiscated a 15-foot outboard fishing boat owned by the migrants.

The men, who were all in good heath, were flown into New Providence yesterday evening for processing.

The police did not say whether or not they suspected the men were illegally fishing in Bahamian waters.

Last November, immigration officials arrested 45 Cuban immigrants off of Cay Sal for entering the country illegally.

A week before that, the government and Cuba signed a new agreement expected to expedite the repatriations of illegal Cuban migrants.

The agreement came after officials noticed increased levels of Cubans migrating to the Bahamas presumably hoping to receive asylum from a third country.

During a news conference Foreign Affairs and Immigration Minister Fred Mitchell said bureaucracy issues between both countries had long bogged down the process, but through this new agreement, that should be a thing of the past.

“The central objective of this agreement is to reduce the time of regular Cuban immigrants arriving to The Bahamas. Through strengthening the communication between both our countries, our maritime interdiction entities and placing concrete time bound commitments in both countries, we expect to reduce the current repatriation time for regular Cuban migrants from the current situation where migrants might remain in the detention centre for months to repatriation in several weeks at most,” he said.