39 Cubans Escape Guantanamo With Daring Dive, Swim : Refugees: The escapees crushed fences with cots and jumped off a cliff. Their desperation emphasizes the dilemma over repatriations.

Thirty-nine Cuban refugees escaped from the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, on Sunday by crushing two fences, jumping off a 40-foot cliff and swimming a mile to Cuban territory.

The escapees were in a group of 85 who made it outside the camp. Forty-six were caught and returned, said Army Maj. Rick Thomas, a camp spokesman.

The escape came one day after 22 Cubans were flown back to Havana. Their repatriations followed an appeals court decision that overturned a U.S. District Court order banning voluntary returns.

The U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta ruled Friday that refugees can be returned to their homeland and have a right to speak to lawyers. The court said its decision was necessary because Cubans are risking their lives to escape.

The escapes are just another sign of growing anger among the refugees, who were picked up at sea fleeing their homeland, Thomas said.

Also Sunday, a refugee tried to commit suicide by slashing his arm, he said. The man was treated at the base hospital.

“The process has been real slow,” Thomas said. “What they want to hear is when they can return to Cuba, but that’s something we can’t tell them.”

Cuban American lawyers had filed a lawsuit to stop repatriations, saying the refugees should first speak to lawyers.

Last week, 105 refugees tried to escape Guantanamo by jumping in the sea or over fences. Some were rescued; 43 remain unaccounted for.

So far, 64 Cubans have been repatriated, Thomas said.

The 85 who fled Sunday were from a tent city housing about 800 Cubans who say they want to return home.

The group piled up cots and boards to push down two six-foot-high fences, then jumped off a nearby cliff, plunging 40 feet to the sea, Thomas said.

They swam about a mile, beyond the Cuban minefield territory, to shore.

In all, about 1,000 of the 24,000 Cubans at Guantanamo and another 8,000 under U.S. supervision at camps in Panama say they want to go home. It was unclear when more refugees will be allowed to return to Cuba.