US embassy cable - 04TEGUCIGALPA2722

UNCLAS TEGUCIGALPA 002722 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
STATE FOR WHA DAS FISK, WHA/CCA, AND WHA/CEN 
STATE FOR PRM, PRM/ENA, PRM/ECA, AND PRM/PRP 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: SMIG, PREF, PGOV, PREL, MARR, CU, HO 
SUBJECT: HONDURAS SEEING INCREASING NUMBERS OF CUBAN 
RAFTERS; MOST USE COUNTRY AS WAY STATION TO THE U.S. 
 
REF: A. USDAO TEGUCIGALPA HO 021257Z NOV 04 
 
     B. USDAO TEGUCIGALPA HO 241030Z SEP 04 
 
1. (SBU) Honduras, for various reasons, is emerging as a new, 
preferred port for Cuban migrants by sea.  Primarily, 
Honduras acts as a way station for Cubans on their way to the 
U.S.  The route appears to usually be the same: migrants 
leave from Comaguey in the Santa Cruz province of Cuba, 
stopping for supplies and rest on Grand Cayman Islands, then 
continuing either to the Honduran Bay Islands or the north 
coast of Honduras, according to Government of Honduras (GOH) 
Immigration officials and local press reports. 
 
2. (SBU) There have been recent cases where Cuban migrants 
landed in the Honduran Swan Islands, which are even farther 
out to sea than the Bay Islands.  This new stopping point has 
created numerous problems for Honduran Immigration and the 
Honduran Navy, because there is neither the infrastructure 
nor the resources to deal with migrants who land in this 
remote location.  The only GOH presence on the Swan Islands 
is a small Navy detachment, which can barely feed itself, 
much less unanticipated visitors.  There are no immigration 
officials on the islands and basic communication with the 
mainland is sketchy. 
 
3. (U) Upon arrival in Honduran territory, the GOH has little 
to do with addressing the migrants' day-to-day needs (the GOH 
lacks funds and facilities to do so).  Instead, while the 
migrants' status is being established during first 60 days, 
the local NGO representative for the United Nations High 
Commission for Refugees (UNCHR) acts as a legal and 
humanitarian buffer, providing medical care, food, and 
shelter. 
 
4. (SBU) As a signatory to the various human rights 
conventions and the 1951 Convention for the Protection of 
Refugees, Honduran Immigration authorities must by law accept 
migrants who solicit refugee status, that is, until their 
individual circumstances are properly investigated.  Although 
each case is addressed individually, most of these migrants 
do not fulfill the requirements for refugee status.  Instead, 
based on the humanitarian or economic reasons of each 
migrant, the GOH often grants a different migrant status to 
each individual case, awarding migrants temporary or 
permanent residency, according to Honduran Immigration.  One 
status frequently granted by Immigration is territorial 
asylum, which is different from the status of political 
asylum given by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 
 
5. (SBU) If the GOH does not grant residency, refugee, or 
some other status to the migrants, there are very few other 
options.  There is no formal immigration agreement between 
the GOH and the Government of Cuba (GOC).  In order for the 
GOH to deport migrants back to Cuba, they must request 
permission from the GOC.  These requests normally take 
between four and six months to process and are nearly always 
turned down.  As a result, there have been only a couple of 
cases where Cuban migrants voluntarily returned to Cuba, each 
time with the assistance of the Cuban Embassy in Honduras. 
 
6. (SBU) As of November 24, 140 Cuban rafters had landed on 
Honduran territory this year, double the number from 2003. 
(Another 13 landed in the Bay Islands the first week of 
December.)  Of those that have arrived this year, eighty 
percent have supposedly remained in Honduras, whereas the 
rest have moved on through Guatemala and Mexico in hopes of 
crossing the border into the U.S.  Honduran immigration 
officials tell EmbOffs, however, that almost all of the Cuban 
migrants (even those granted permission to stay long-term in 
Honduras) eventually try to immigrate, legally or illegally, 
to the U.S. 
Pierce