The Mariel Boat Lift - Term Paper Example

Abstract The Mariel Boat lift, a famous event in the history that shoed the migration of hundreds and thousands of Cubans from Cuba to Miami Florida. The event occurred in the late 20th century, in the 1980 when the Cubans gathered in waters of Cuba with their boats in order to take the immigrants back to Miami Florida which is situated some 90 nm from Cuba. The event, first supposed to be a failure turned out to be a mass immigration of Cubans from the cruel country of Cuba, well known for its anti human rights policies. Although Mariel Boatlift changed the policies of many European countries as well as America and they did think of providing political asylum to the Cubans but, still there was a law in the European countries that any illegal immigrant coming to Europe from Cuba will be handed back to the Cuban government. Cuba is very well known anti human rights country. No human rights association is allowed to enter and work in this country because of the cruel anti human rights actions taking place in the country and the rulers of that place do not want them to be exposed out in the whole world. These anti Human rights actions were the main cause that lead to the immigration of millions of Cubans and they had to leave their country and countless innocent lives were lost in the process until the Mariel boatlift that started from a radio broadcast and turned out to be a mass immigration. Cuba is a communist country and violates several many human rights incorporated into the Declaration of Human Rights. It suppresses its individuals thought process, religion, opinion, right to participate in government and other many things. Furthermore, it denies access to humanitarian organizations into Cuba[ CITATION Rob97 \l 1033 ]. The Cuban government does not allow its citizens to immigrate without government authorization. Immigration was a crime punishable by jail time as well as monetary penalties. However, after 1989, Cuba’s economic conditions took a turn for the worst and Cubans were desperate to move even if it put their life to risk. An estimated 70,000 Cubans have probably died trying to migrate to America. More recently, law have been signed where neighboring countries like the U.S Bahamas etc return unauthorized Cuban immigrants to the Cuban government while many European countries do the same. However, in some case the European countries provide political asylum. This just shows blurred international law about humanitarian rights[ CITATION Wer04 \l 1033 ]. Over 125,000 Cubans moved to Southern Florida from Port of Mariel in Cuba during the Mariel boatlift. The event began with a broadcast by the Miami Radio Station that asked Cuban-Americans to gather with their boats for the purpose to sail to the limits of Cuban waters some 90 nautical miles [nm] from Florida, in order to pressurize Castro's immigration policies[ CITATION Sta12 \l 1033 ]. Within days, staggering number of Cubans began to move to the United States. The exodus fleet became a steady stream which included hundreds of crafts which ranged in size from 18 feet to 90 feet, out of which at least 20 could be easily seen from the patrolling Coast Guard aircraft at any given moment (the picture above). The mass emigration of Cubans from 15th April to 31st October, 1980 from Cuba's Mariel Harbor to the United States is referred to as the Mariel boatlift. The entire event started brewing in 1977 when the relations between the United States and Cuba were improving. Currently, here are strict laws regulating the immigration of Cubans to other countries. Many countries in fact return unauthorized immigrants back to the Cuban government. Many legal scholars call this returning of unauthorized immigrants back to the country a breach of international law where every individual has equal rights of being accepted. The United States as well as other countries neighboring Cuba is all signatories of Convention on Refugees, the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment and the American Convention of Human Rights. The fat hat they do not provide asylum to Cuban immigrants is a clear violation of these conventions which clearly state that an immigrant shall not be returned or expelled back to his country of origin if he would be in danger of being tortured there. About 750 Cubans gathered at the Peruvian embassy in Havana on 5 April, 1980, and demanded diplomatic asylum. The news of this gathering spread by the word of mouth. By Easter Sunday, an estimated 10,100 people had gathered and were crammed into the tiny grounds of the Peruvian embassy. The Cuban government quickly responded to this and ordered a large number of guards to the embassy to block access along the perimeters of the Peruvian embassy. Another initiative taken by the government was to ban travel by motor vehicles in the suburb of Miramar which was home to almost all foreign embassies in the City of Havana. Inside the Peruvian embassy, Cuban people occupied every inch of space on the grounds, and had even climbed trees and any other available structure. They refused to empty out the premises despite the fact that there was no basic surface infrastructure available for them to even stand on. As a result of this embassies of countries such as Spain and Costa Rica agreed to accept a small number of refugees on their premises[ CITATION Uni \l 1033 ]. Te gathering was a result of the Cuban Government decision to withdraw police protection around the Peruvian Embassy on the 4th of April, 1980. The government announced that anyone who wished to leave Cuba should go to the Peruvian Embassy. Hence, over 10,000 Cubans gathered in the Peruvian embassy premises in less than 48 hours. On 88h April, 1980 the Cuban refugees that had gathered at the Peruvian Embassy send messages to Cuban President Carter, Pope Paul II and different other head of states, requesting for their assistance in leaving Cuba. 9th April, 1980 saw the arrival of Peru's new Charge d’Affaires, Minister Counselor Armando Lecaroz, to begin registrations of the Cuban refugees gathered at the Peruvian Embassy. On 10th April, 1980 the government of Peru asked ICEM to take imperative measures to assist with the international resettlement of 10,000 Cubans that had gathered in Peruvian Embassy in Havana for the past 4 days[ CITATION Cub06 \l 1033 ]. The case study International Law and Other Considerations on Repatriation of Cuban Balseros by the United States talks about how human rights are repressed in Cuba. For various humanitarian reasons as well as economic factors, many Cubans want to leave Cuba. However, the government does not permit immigration without its permission. The case goes on to talk about international laws which protect immigrants such as Cuban immigrants. Those who have immigrated illegally without permission from the government because their welfare was not protected is the central pivot of these laws. It is told that international laws protect such immigrants. Countries by right of international law are supposed to provide asylum to such immigrants. No exiled immigrant is to be returned to their country if there is a potential risk of torture or inhumane behavior with that particular individual. However, the United States as well as many other countries are in breach of this law. They have signed treaties with Cuba to return illegal immigrants. It is further said that the U.S has always been the choice of immigrants. For this reason, the American government has always tried to accommodate Cuban immigrants who can even adjust to permanent resident status unlike people of any other nationality. However, due to the extremely large number of immigrations occurring, the United States signed a pact with Cuba whereby it had to return Cuban immigrants. Cuba as part of the pact promised not to prosecute or take any action against the returned immigrants. A lot of people living in Cuba and the Cuban refugees migrated to the United States between April and September 1980. The Mariel Boatlift, the result of more than two decades of lack of sympathy between the United States and Cuba, resulted in the migration of more than 125,000 Cubans from the Cuban port known as Mariel to the southern part of Florida. The relations between the United States and Cuba worsened in 1961 where, from trade relations to diplomatic relations were totally cut down between the two nations and travel and trade between the two were essentially stopped. It was during 1977 when the relationship between the two countries started getting better, when president Jimmy Carter of the United States assumed office and sought to improve relations and talked to the Cuban president Fidel Castro as how to improve the relations between the two. In 1979, Castro allowed the Cuban Americans to return back to Cuba. After seeing the miserable poverty and bad conditions in which many Cubans lived, however, many of these Cubans residing in States, returned to the United States and with a thought and determination to do something about the miserable conditions of people living in Cuba. Meanwhile, Castro faced rising opposition sparked by economic turmoil such as housing and job shortages as well as a dull economy. On 4 April 1980, most likely to get rid of troublemakers, Castro planned to do something about it. He ordered that the guards be removed from the Peruvian embassy in Havana, and within few hours’ throngs of Cubans requested political shelter. This step taken by Castro should have been a warning sign or a red signal to Washington but the signal went largely ignored by them. Soon after this, the United States found itself in the middle of a major refugee problem when Castro allowed that any person who wants to leave Cuba has a free right of entry to depart from the Mariel port, located about 28 miles west of Havana. On 19 April 1980, the Cuban government announced that Cuban Americans could journey to Cuba to get to the refugees, departing so far as to contact Cuban Americans openly to support them to get themselves to the voyage. Cuban Americans without delay set sail for their relatives in practically any yacht that appeared even slightly that it can sail them to their destination. Thousands of fishing boats, yachts, and other small craft departed from Key West and Miami and Florida, for Mariel. The boats were usually fully loaded and at times it carried in it more refugees then its actual capacity. The first boat taking refugees in it arrived on 21st April. By the time the boatlift came to an end, more than 125,000 Cubans successfully made the journey to the United States. Amazingly, the amount of people missing in this whole process was only 27, owing mostly to the search and rescue workers’ efforts of the U.S. Coast Guard[ CITATION Dav97 \l 1033 ]. The vast majority of the Cuban immigrants that entered the United States were violating the law. President Jimmy Carter's administration refused to return the refugees for humanitarian, legal and political reasons. This decision meant that United States had to accept the Mariel Cubans. Castro also required immigrant boats to carry additional passengers; some of them recently released prisoners and mental patients. Over 23,000 Cuban immigrants had criminal convictions, although many of those convictions were for offenses that would not have warranted detention under U.S. law. Only 2 % of the immigrants (2,746 Cubans) were classified as actual criminals and were not granted citizenship. However reports claiming that criminals and the mentally ill were in a in huge number among those thousands Cubans arriving in the U.S. daily fueled a major public backlash When Castro finally stopped the Mariel Boatlift, the Carter administration appeared to have botched the situation as it was already under a lot of due to the Iranian Hostage Crisis. Carter administration failed poorly to capitalize on the propaganda value of Cuba's internal problems and had no control over the immigration process. The Mariel Boatlift added to the American public's frustration and further antagonized them with Carter's administration which indirectly led to his electoral defeat by Ronald Reagan in 1980[ CITATION Neu11 \l 1033 ]. As is apparent, the immigration of Cuban immigrants was not very well received by the locals who thought too much of their resources were being consumed by the illegal immigrants. Added to that was the threat these immigrants posed because they had no jobs and no means of earning money. The Cuban labor not only cost less, they also were responsible for increased crime rate. Hence, the local did not support this move whole heartedly. Works Cited CITATION Rob97 \l 1033 : , (Tibanear), CITATION Wer04 \l 1033 : , (WerLau), CITATION Sta12 \l 1033 : , (Stabile and Scheina), CITATION Uni \l 1033 : , (United Press International), CITATION Cub06 \l 1033 : , (Cuban Information Archives), CITATION Dav97 \l 1033 : , (Engstorm), CITATION Neu11 \l 1033 : , (Neumann), Read More