Resettlement is politically fraught in both Australia and the US, whose refugee deal was previously labelled a ‘people swap’

Seventeen refugees who were found clinging to a lighthouse off the Florida Keys after fleeing Cuba in a self-made raft, and then were sent to Guantánamo Bay for a year, have been resettled in Brisbane.

Under the United States’s “wet foot, dry foot” policy, which Barack Obama ended in January as part of improving relations between the two countries, Cuban asylum seekers were immediately allowed to stay and apply to become legal residents if they landed on American soil.

However, those intercepted at sea were returned to Cuba or taken to a migration centre at Guantánamo Bay for assessment.

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A legal challenge was launched to determine if the lighthouse, anchored to a reef under 1.3m of water, seven nautical miles south of Sugarloaf Key, was US territory under the policy. A federal court ruled against the asylum seekers’ claim.

The group was sent to Guantánamo. The case made headlines across the US and Latin America.

“We crossed the ocean trying to arrive in the States,” Alexander Vergara Lopez told Guardian Australia. “We were 24 guys but when we were crossing the ocean the boat was broken … When we saw the lighthouse, we hopped on the lighthouse and then it was crazy.

“The relationship between Cuba and the United States is not the best. We happen to be normal people, members of the public, but we started to appear in social media and many other communications.”

Of the lighthouse cohort, 20 were reportedly found to have refugee claims and remained in Guantánamo, awaiting third-country resettlement through the US’s Migration Operations Centre. While at the MOC naval station, migrants are assisted by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), including in finding work on the base.

Five months ago the group was informed they had been accepted for resettlement in Australia and they arrived in Brisbane at the end of last month, after travelling via the Dominican Republic, France and Dubai.

Upon arrival in Brisbane Vergara Lopez praised Australia as a “very free place”, saying: “It’s a dream – we are very happy, we have a million thanks for our lawyers [in the Democracy Movement in Miami].”

Ramón Sánchez, the leader of the Florida-based Democracy Movement, which led the group’s legal challenge said: “The 17 Cubans of the American shoal lighthouse case have already landed in Australia, happy to finally attain full freedom.”

Refugee resettlement is a politically fraught topic in both Australia and the US, and two separate arrangements between the countries have been labelled a “people swap”.



Facebook Twitter Pinterest Alexander Vergara Lopez says he hopes an appeal that is currently before the courts will give he and other Cuban refugees the option of returning to the US.

In September Turnbull announced a protection transfer arrangement with the US to take refugees from Costa Rican camps as part of Australia’s annual humanitarian intake. The arrangement is between the United Nations high commissioner for refugees, IOM and settlement countries including Australia and the US.

Currently US officials are also assessing refugees held in Australia’s offshore detention centres as part of an agreement to resettle up to 1,200 people. Australia refuses to resettle any asylum seeker who arrived by boat after 19 July 2013.

The agreement between the Australian government and Obama has been controversial.

Under the arrangement the US doesn’t technically have to take any refugees – which Turnbull assured the president, Donald Trump, of in a phone call, the transcript of which was leaked. Trump expressed disgust at the “bad deal”. Turnbull also said Australia would take “anyone” the US wanted it to take in return.

“We are taking people from the previous administration that they were very keen on getting out of the United States,” he told Trump. “We will take more.”

It remains unclear who the “people” are or why the US was “very keen” to get them out of the country.

In May, Australia’s Senate estimates learned that, under the Costa Rica agreement, seven cases involving 30 people were going through regular screening processes for resettlement in Australia.

At the same time the department was also going through a tranche of Cuban refugee placements as part of Australia’s “periodical” assistance of the US, Mandy Newton, the deputy commissioner of Australian Border Force, told estimates.

It is not known which agreement the 17 Cubans arrived under and Australian and US officials decline to comment on specific cases.

The Australian immigration department said Australia and the US had “a long history of cooperation on mutual and respective humanitarian objectives”, including resettling Cuban refugees.

“These refugees were assessed by Australian government officials and met the criteria for refugee and humanitarian visas, including rigorous health, character and security checks,” the spokeswoman said.

A US state department spokeswoman declined to comment on individual cases but said 445 people had been resettled in third countries through the Guantánamo-based Migration Operations Centre since 1996. The vast majority were Cubans.

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“Protected migrants are neither detained, imprisoned, nor held, and are free at any time to return to their country of origin,” she said. “Most, however, choose to stay at the MOC until a resettlement opportunity arises.”

Vergara Lopez said he didn’t know why he and the other 16 Cuban refugees couldn’t stay in the US, but hoped an appeal – currently before the courts – would allow them the option of returning. “Maybe if we win the case we can leave Australia and go to the States,” he said.

He has a grandmother and a four-year-old son in Cuba but Vergara Lopez had hoped to go to the US to live with his mother in Florida. If not, he said he was happy to stay in Brisbane and was grateful for the welcome and support of Australia.

“I like it here, it’s a nice place. If I have to stay here all my life, I will. I like it,” he said. “Right now I’m working for a company … they are teaching me right now. [Australia] is a good place, I like it, very nice people.”