Washington — Cuba’s authorities is keen to just accept extra deportation flights from the U.S. of Cuban migrants, who’ve traveled to the southern border in document numbers over the previous three years, a prime Cuban official instructed CBS Information in an unique interview.
After a two-year pause, the U.S. restarted deportation flights to the island final yr. Since then, the U.S. has been sending one flight with Cuban deportees to Havana every month.
However in an interview with CBS Information this week, Cuba’s Deputy Overseas Minister Carlos Fernández de Cossío mentioned Cuban officers are keen to accommodate a couple of flight per thirty days.
“We’re open to having extra” deportation flights, mentioned Fernández de Cossío, who visited Washington this week to fulfill with Biden administration officers for the newest spherical of migration talks between the 2 international locations.
Because the 1959 Cuban Revolution, the U.S. and Cuba have had a deeply contentious relationship. The Chilly Battle-era rivals nonetheless bitterly disagree on many points, from Cuba’s human rights document and its ties to China and Russia to the decades-long American embargo on Cuban imports and exports.
However Washington and Havana have labored collectively on immigration, together with by signing the 1994 U.S.-Cuba Migration Accords, which officers from each nations are discussing this week. The 2 international locations’ work on immigration has intensified in recent times amid the document arrival of a whole lot of hundreds of Cubans to the U.S.-Mexico border.
Because the begin of fiscal yr 2021, the U.S. has processed greater than 450,000 Cuban migrants on the southern border, in keeping with Customs and Border Safety knowledge. The movement of Cuban migrants to the U.S. border has slowed since final yr, when the Biden administration created packages which have allowed some Cubans to fly into the U.S. legally or seem at an official border crossing.
Within the interview this week, Fernández de Cossío blamed the exodus from Cuba in recent times on the U.S. embargo and different American insurance policies, together with the Nineteen Sixties Cuban Adjustment Act, which created a particular pathway to everlasting U.S. residency for sure Cuban migrants. Solely Congress can change that regulation.
Fernández de Cossío mentioned the U.S. is “aiming at destroying the Cuban economic system” by means of its sanctions. He didn’t concede that financial mismanagement and repressive insurance policies by Havana have additionally pushed Cubans to flee the island, because the U.S. authorities has argued.
“You’ll be able to discuss different components, however when you have a constant coverage by essentially the most highly effective economic system on the planet to attempt to destroy the livelihood of an entire inhabitants, 11 million Cubans, it’s logical to count on folks, a phase of the inhabitants, to wish to depart the nation,” he mentioned.
In 2023, the U.S. Division of Homeland Safety assessed that “Cuba’s deteriorating financial situations and political repression proceed to more and more drive Cubans out of their nation.”
Fernández de Cossío additionally cited the shortage of some authorized channels for Cuban residents to come back to the U.S. for unlawful crossings alongside the southern border by Cubans.
He urged the State Division to renew the processing of vacationer and short-term visas in Havana. The Biden administration restarted immigrant visa processing in Cuba, however short-term visa seekers in Cuba nonetheless must journey to a 3rd nation to have their instances processed.
Fernández de Cossío mentioned U.S. officers knowledgeable him they might resume full visa processing in Cuba sooner or later.
Representatives for the State Division didn’t reply to requests to touch upon Fernández de Cossío’s remarks.
Fernández de Cossío expressed some concern about further U.S. sanctions if former President Donald Trump is elected in November. Throughout Trump’s tenure, the U.S. had a extra aggressive stance in the direction of Cuba, reversing the Obama administration’s try to normalize relations with Havana.
“In fact we’re involved if there are further financial measures [against] Cuba, no matter who wins the election. The Biden administration has very faithfully utilized the insurance policies put in place by the Trump administration and added some,” he mentioned. “So we might not [be] shocked they might do it. It will be unfair, and we imagine it will be immoral, however we’ve got to acknowledge that may occur and [it] offers us room for concern.”
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