seven rafters Cubans who arrived in the Cayman Islands on May 8 and decided to continue their trip They are currently missing.
A relative of one of them wrote to this newsroom to spread the case in search of information.
According to him, the group is made up of seven men who come from Camagüey and were heading towards Mexico.
“These rafters left Cuba on May 3 through Santa Cruz del Sur, Camagüey, heading to Cancún, Mexico. On the 8th it was learned CyberCuba that they had arrived in the Cayman Islands but had asked to continue their journey. Since then we have not heard anything more about them,” said the author of the message.
“There are seven men. Among them is my uncle José Luis Vázquez López, 48 years oldoriginally from the province of Camagüey,” he added.
“Please, any information or disclosure of these seven missing rafters would be very helpful,” the message concludes.
About two weeks ago, the Cayman Islands Customs and Border Control Service (CBC) reported that on May 8, seven migrants arrived in the Cayman Islands aboard a homemade boat.
The small boat was spotted off Queens Highway at approximately 5:30 am.
CBC and its partner agencies responded to the scene, but the rafters said they preferred to continue their journey, so authorities monitored them until they left their radars.
“At approximately 9:30 am the vessel was heading WNW off the coast of Cobalt, West Bay, approximately 2 miles offshore, heading west, about 2-3 knots. The vessel was monitored by CBC from ground until it was out of line of sight,” the entity stressed on Facebook.
In the Cayman Islands, a British overseas territory located south of Cuba, there are dozens of Cuban migrants who spend years waiting for the results of their asylum applications, in prisons and in low-paid forced labor.
In January 2023, the authorities of that country and the Cuban authorities agreed to resume deportation flights.
Cuban rafters continue to arrive on its shores, and in the face of reports of mistreatment in detention centers and deportations, many decide to continue their journey.
