This content was posted on January 15, 2023 – 1:58 am January 15, 2023 – 1:58 am
Havana, 14 January (EFE).- The United States, the Bahamas and the Cayman Islands have returned 1,115 irregular migrants to Cuba in the first 13 days of the year, the Interior Ministry (Minint) reported this Saturday.
The United States tops the list with the most returnees of Cubans with 970 people registered, followed by the Bahamas (129) and the Cayman Islands (16), the ministry said in a press release.
“Those repatriated in these first days of the year account for 9% of total repatriations in 2022,” according to the Cuban authorities.
This entity warned that on Sunday, January 8, “the largest repatriation in recent years” by the US Coast Guard involved 273 people “involved in illegal exits from the country” via a port in Matanzas (West).
“The Cuban government has reaffirmed its commitment to regular, safe and orderly migration and emphasizes the dangers and life-threatening conditions that such movements by illegal means, mainly by sea, pose,” the ministry said.
“Following Joseph Biden’s government’s new migration measures, Cuban authorities have claimed that a more normal migratory relationship, involving temporary visits between the two countries, would help reduce the potential for migration,” he added.
Earlier this year, the US government instituted a policy to take in 30,000 migrants a month from Venezuela, Haiti, Cuba and Nicaragua.
In parallel, it will immediately expel migrants from these countries who attempt to enter Mexico irregularly into its territory.
For its part, Mexico has agreed to accept 30,000 migrants a month who are being deported from US territory.
The United States has seen record numbers of migrants attempting to cross the border irregularly for decades on its southern border, motivated largely by a new unprecedented migratory exodus from Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela.
In the case of Cuba, a total of 224,607 citizens arrived at the southern U.S. border in fiscal year 2022 — between October 1, 2021 and September 30, 2022, according to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency.
Likewise, as of last October 1, the date on which the current fiscal year began, 3,370 Cubans were being held in the Florida Straits. EFE
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