Sponsor Says He Wasn’t Aware of Cubans’ Intention

cuban-flag

We recently reported on a group of Cuban citizens who arrived in the territory with the intention of seeking political asylum in the United States.

At the time we did not name the group’s sponsor, as we had not obtained comment from the individual.

We can now report that the sponsor was former House Speaker Matagi Ray McMoore,.

The group of two men and two women were medical professionals and they traveled here from Apia.

Matagi said a friend of his in Samoa asked if he could provide entry permission for what the friend told him were “a couple, their daughter and a male friend. “

He claimed he did not know the Cubans’ intention of traveling here was to seek political asylum, until after they landed here.

Matagi said that he was contacted by the Immigration Office at the airport about the Cubans arrival and by the time he got the airport, immigration there had already released the four.

Matagi , a former chairman of the Immigration Board said the Cubans were using brand new passports that only had entry stamps of Fiji and Samoa.

He said that had he known their real situation, he would not have sponsored them.

And if Immigration had waited for him to arrive at the airport before releasing them he would have sent them back right then.

Matagi said the group stayed for 2 days before they left.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,