Representatives of Cuba and the United States talk about migration.
By Roberto Morejon
Talks between the United States and Cuba on migration issues continued their course in Havana, a meeting in which the Antillean government reaffirmed its willingness to continue them, given their usefulness and above all to guarantee an orderly and safe flow of this type.
Representatives of the North American nation and the Caribbean country thus held the fourth such exchange during the administration of President Joseph Biden.
This is a step forward compared to the previous stage, when the then first U.S. president, Donald Trump, interrupted this type of rapprochement, despite the good results they have in the bilateral order.
Now in Havana, the representations of Cuba and the United States were able to review compliance with the bilateral agreements, adopted since 1984.
The two sides examined these and other compromises as they did in the three previous exchanges, on such complex issues as migration, security and border control.
This week's bilateral meeting comes at a unique juncture, as the flow of migrants from Cuba increases, in direct relation to the impact of the tightening of the blockade, dictated by Trump and essentially sustained by his successor.
Cuba underscored how the special provisions in the United States in relation to those born in this archipelago additionally encourage these departures.
They can avail themselves of the Cuban Adjustment Act, by which they are granted permanent residency after one year of being in northern territory, a peculiarity not available to other migrants.
For Cuba, its arbitrary inclusion in the spurious list of States that, according to Washington, sponsor terrorism is also significant in encouraging migration.
The U.S. allegations to support this decision are untenable, as has been denounced at the UN by delegations from several countries.
Another incitement to illegal departures is the political asylum granted by the U.S. government to hijackers of Cuban aircraft, despite the risk to air safety.
The issue of irregular migration is also of great interest to the Latin American and Caribbean region, as evidenced at a recent meeting in Mexico.
Convened by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the meeting rejected coercive measures applied to some countries because they provoke emigration.
The U.S. government should take into account such approaches, reaffirmed by Cuba at the meeting in Havana.
