The Bahamas carried out the repatriation of 38 irregular Cuban migrants through the Air Canal on Fridayas part of bilateral migration deals struck with the island’s government, the Interior Ministry reported in a note released by the official press.
With this flight they add according to the statement in the first 13 days of 2023, a total of nine operations with 1,115 returned Cubans: six were sea repatriations due to the United States Coast Guard with 970 people; two airlines from the Bahamas with 129 and another from the Cayman Islands with 16.
The returnees represented in these first days of the year 9% of the total returned in 2022add the MINT.
Last Sunday, January 8th, it took place in the port of Matanzas the largest repatriation in recent years by the United States Coast Guard at 273 people who had participated in illegal exits from the country.
Havana holds Washington responsible for the largest migration exodus in Cuban history, for the policies surrounding it and also for the economic embargo.
The regime calls for “more normal migratory relations that include temporary visits between the two countries,” which “would help reduce the potential for migration and attempts to enter the United States through irregular means and practices, while encouraging communication between Cuban families.” would “.
Behind the island’s massive abandonment are the existence of a systemic crisis in Cuban society, the lack of freedoms for people to change their reality, and the creation of an air bridge between Havana and Managua.
This is not the first time the regime has evaded its internal crises in this way. The first time this happened was in 1965 when 5,000 Cubans left the port of Boca de Camarioca. In 1980, with the exodus of Mariel, 125,000 people left the island, and in 1994, with the so-called rafter crisis, more than 30,000 people left the island.
The so-called “escape valve” that Miguel Díaz-Canel opened when he got Daniel Ortega to abolish visa requirements for Cubans in November 2021 was operational until recently. The Cubans arrived in Nicaragua, then Honduras, then Guatemala and later to Mexico, finally emerging at the border with the United States. There they turned themselves in to the authorities.
This route was made difficult by the new immigration policies for Cubans, Haitians and Nicaraguans approved by the US Department of Homeland Security. As of January 5, 2023, migrants from these countries are no longer welcome at the US border. Those who do not make an appointment through the CBP One application to drop themselves off will be turned back immediately if discovered on US territory.