Cuba: Information on the impact of the demonstrations and exodus of asylum seekers during the summer of 1994 on the treatment of returnees and asylum seekers

According to the director of the "Cuba Project," (a specialized studies programme on Cuba) from the department of Latin American Studies at Georgetown University in Washington, the events of the summer of 1994 (demonstrations and exodus of asylum seekers) did not make it significantly more difficult for asylum seekers to leave Cuba in the aftermath (14 Mar. 1995).

The director stated that "the whole exodus had been triggered by the Cuban government in order to put pressure on the US regarding immigration policy. By mid-September 1994, things went back as they were before (ibid.)".

The director also reported that "no horror stories" have been heard concerning the treatment of returnees. Procedures are still followed the same way. Returnees are sent to the Guantanamo base and from there reintegrated into society. The process takes time and is usually quite frustrating for the returnees who have often times sold all their belongings to leave Cuba.

According to the director, Cuba's regime has made a promise to the returnees that they would not be prosecuted and that they would be treated fairly.

The director of the Cuban Committee for Human Rights, a dissident human rights organization with offices in Cuba and Miami, stated that approximately three hundred individuals have been arrested and detained following their participation in the 5 August 1994 riots in Havana. The director added that over a hundred of these individuals have been condemned to prison terms of various duration (15 Mar. 1995).

According to the director, the Cuban Coast Guard is still under order to capture rafters inside Cuban territorial waters considering that leaving Cuba illegaly represents a counter-revolutionary crime and is punishable with a prison term of one to three years.

In a telephone interview on 8 June 1995, a journalist specializing in Cuban affairs and columnist at the El Nuevo Herald, the Miami Herald's Spanish version, corroborated the information of the director of the Cuba project, stating that the balseros or rafters "are usually not jailed or harrassed at their return to Cuba."

However, the journalist had a different opinion about the impact of the 1994 demonstrations. He mentionned that conditions for asylum seekers to leave Cuba have become more difficult since the riots took place but could not provide any detail about what these conditions were. Feeling the pressure from the street, the regime is more wary than before, stated the journalist.

For information on the events that took place in the summer of 1994 in Cuba and on the asylum seekers, please consult the attached documents and Response to Information Request CUB18486.E of 23 September 1994.

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the DIRB within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum.

References

Cuban Committee for Human Rights, Miami, Fla. 15 March 1995. Telephone interview with the director.

Department of Latin American studies. Georgetown University, Washington, DC. 14 March 1995. Telephone interview with the director of the "Cuba Project."

El Nuevo Heraldo. Miami, Fla. 8 June 1995. Telephone interview with a journalist and specialist on Cuba.

Attachments

Agence France Presse (AFP). 17 June 1994. Isabelle Hourcade. "Castro: Pas de Visas mais pas de Mesures de retorsion pour les Occupants des Amabassades à La Havane."

Americas Watch. 1994. Cuba: Repression, the Exodus of August 1994, and the U.S. Response. New York: Human Rights Watch, pp. 2-19.

Amnesty International. 23 August 1994. "Cuba: Amnesty International Concerned That Cuban Asylum Seekers May be Denied Access to Proper Refugee Procedures." (AI Index: AMR 25/WU 03/94). London: Amnesty International.

Hemisphere. Vol. 6, No. 3. Carmelo Mesa-Lago. "Balseros in Limbo," pp. 10-13.

The Economist. 17 September 1994. "Cuba: Beached," p. 43.

_____. 10 September 1994. "Immigration Policy: Cubans First," pp. 26-27.

_____. 3 September 1994. "Cuba Lives, in A Fashion," pp. 43-44.

_____. 13 August 1994. "Cuba: Murder to Escape," pp. 41-42.

Latinamerica Press [Lima]. 27 October 1994. Vol. 26, No. 39. Karen Lee Wald. "Cuban Rafters Heading Home," pp. 1-8.

_____. 21 July 1994. Vol. 26, No. 27. Dalia Acosta. "Lost at Sea: The Plight of Fleeing Cubans," p. 6.

St. Petersburg Times. 6 February 1995. City Edition. "Unraveling the Refugee Problem." (NEXIS)

Additional Sources Consulted

Central America Newspak [Austin, Tx]. 1994.

Central America Report [Guatemala City]. 1994.

Central America Update [Toronto]. 1994.

Countries of the World and Their Leaders Yearbook. 1994.

Current History [Philadelphia]. 1994.

Documentation-Réfugiés [Paris]. 1994.

Inter-Church Committee on Human Rights in Latin America (ICCHRLA). Yearly. Annual Reports: General Concerns and Brief Country Reports.

Keesing's Record of World Events. 1994. Edited by Roger East. London: Longman.

Latin America Update [Washington]. June 1994-October 1994.

Latinamerica Press [Lima]. June 1994-October 1994.

Latin American Newsletters [London]. 1994.

Latin American Regional Reports: Central America and Caribbean Report [London].

NACLA Report on the Americas.

Political Handbook of the World. 1994.

Problèmes d'Amérique latine. 1994.

On-line searches.

Oral sources.