Cuba and the United States will hold migration talks

Havana, April 11 (RHC) - Cuba and the United States will hold this Wednesday, in Washington, a new round of migration talks, with the expectation of focusing on aspects that reiterate respect for the agreements for safe and regular migration, the island’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced today.

Johana Tablada, deputy director of the General Directorate of the United States of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Minrex) recalled that in the previous year a group of positive steps were registered, among which are the resumption of visa issuance at the United States consulate in Havana and the granting of the visas established in the migration agreements.

These visas were affected for more than six years due to a unilateral and arbitrary decision made by the United States government based on alleged sonic attacks, which recently seven agencies of the intelligence community of the United States reiterated that they were due to natural causes, as Cuba had stated.

The Cuban delegation, headed by Carlos Fernández de Cossío, vice minister of Minrex, will discuss important and determining issues that are concerns of the Cuban government and that have not been solved, such as the incentives for irregular emigration.

Among these incentives, he highlighted, the persistence in the continuity of extreme measures which directly influence the socioeconomic living conditions of the Cuban population, and have a direct link with the decision of many families of trying to find a life project beyond the borders and specifically in the United States.

Another issue on the agenda of the Cuban delegation in the talks is to denounce the admission of people who arrive irregularly to the United States and becomes an encouragement for others to adopt this unsafe route.

The deputy director of the General Directorate of the United States of the Foreign Ministry informed that the Cuban delegation will also reiterate the request that the programs for the granting of so-called non-immigrant visas be restored, that is, family and professional visas, which currently do not allow a family to visit a loved one in the United States without emigrating.

There are also people forced to travel to third countries to undergo an agonizing waiting process without having any guarantee that this visa will be granted. The same happens with artists, scientists, athletes, if they intend to participate in events in the United States.

Another important point for the round of talks will be to denounce the political asylum granted to the hijacker of an airliner, an explicit breach of the migration agreements and a danger to both countries’ air safety. (Source: ACN)