Cuba urges the United States to comply with migratory agreements

Havana, April 22 (RHC)-- Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez insisted on Friday on the obligation of the U.S. government to guarantee the issuance in Havana of 20,000 annual visas to Cubans to emigrate to that country.

There is no justification for interrupting this service in Cuba and forcing would-be emigrants to travel to Guyana, the head of the island's diplomacy said on Twitter.

He reiterated that the U.S. government must stop hindering and violating the rights of Cubans to travel to third countries in the area and called for compliance with bilateral migration agreements in their entirety and not selectively.

Both parties held official migratory talks in Washington D.C. on Thursday, the first since 2018. They reviewed compliance with bilateral agreements and the mutual commitment to guarantee regular, safe, and orderly migration.

At the meeting, Cuba reiterated its concern over the U.S. government measures that encourage migration, prevent it from taking place in a legal and orderly manner, and generate the socio-economic conditions that incite it through the reinforcement of the economic, financial, and commercial blockade.

According to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency, in the last six months, 79,800 Cubans were apprehended at the US-Mexico border.

For their part, Cuban authorities reported that so far this year, 1,680 citizens were returned to the island by sea and air from the United States, Mexico, Bahamas, and the Cayman Islands.

Encouraged by the Cuban Adjustment Act, the only one of its kind globally, many Cuban nationals join irregular migratory routes in Central America, exposed to violence, scams, and the corruption of groups dedicated to drug or human trafficking.