Just one asylum seeker remained in the territory at the end of 2014, according to a statistical snapshot from the United Nations’ refugee agency, but the BVI Red Cross has reported that at least eight passed through the territory last year.
The four men and four women were all asylum seekers from Cuba, who spent nine months in the Immigration Detention Centre in Balsam Ghut, according to the BVIRC’s 2014 report.
The BVIRC subsequently worked with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and the Premier’s Office to have the Cubans relocated to the Prospect Reef Hotel.
Once they were moved, a representative from the UNHCR interviewed the group in an effort to determine whether they were indeed eligible for asylum.
However, the group only stayed at the hotel for three weeks, according to the report.
“On learning that the process takes three months, they absconded from the territory to the neighbouring United States Virgin Islands,” the report states.
Part of the BVIRC’s mission is to offer crisis assistance to undocumented migrants in the territory, according to the report.
“Every so often the BVI has cases of migrants without documents that have been stranded near to or on one of its islands or have been displaced for one reason or another,” the report states, adding, “The Red Cross is called upon to assist with providing short term immediate assistance based on humanitarian crisis needs.”
See the Dec. 17, 2015 edition for full coverage.
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