US and Cuban representatives met Thursday in Washington to discuss migration.
This event has been considered the first high-level bilateral meeting since Joe Biden arrived at the White House and since negotiations on this issue were interrupted in 2018. The US delegation was headed by Emily Mendrala, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, and the Cuban delegation was led by Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernández de Cossio.
Although discussions were expected to cover various issues straining relations between the two countries, the talks focused on ways to address illegal immigration, changing migration trends, deportations, and the roles of embassies, State Department spokesman Ned Price added.
In reference to this, according to the United States Customs office, from October 2021 to March 2022, more than 78,000 Cubans entered the country through the border with Mexico, that is, double the number who left the island during the so-called "rafter crisis" in 1994.
Tensions between Washington and Havana over the Cuban government's repression of protests in July 2021 resulted in one death, dozens of injuries, and 1,395 arrests. US sanctions against the island and other issues have hampered cooperation between the two countries on challenges such as immigration. Despite this, the delegations emphasized their willingness to engage in direct and comprehensive dialogue.
«Discussions about safe, orderly, and legal migration remain of paramount importance to the United States,» Price told reporters. He added that the desire to «encourage family reunification and promote greater respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms in Cuba» is equally important.
However, the Cuban delegation "reiterated its concern about the measures taken by the U.S. government that encourage migration, impede legal and orderly migration, and create socioeconomic conditions that incite emigration. It stressed that these measures, including those associated with the extreme strengthening of the economic blockade, cause loss of life and the commission of crimes such as migrant smuggling, immigration fraud, and human trafficking, a situation that affects both countries and the region," according to a statement released by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
He also insisted that Washington has "the obligation" to issue 20,000 annual visas to Cubans to emigrate to the United States under an agreement "that has been violated since 2017.".
Regarding the visa issue, the first announcements about the resumption of visa issuance in Cuba were made in March, but no specific date was set. However, at Thursday's meeting, the discussion focused on "consular services at the U.S. Embassy in Havana, including the limited resumption of immigrant visa services beginning in May and the ongoing issuance of emergency nonimmigrant visas," the U.S. State Department detailed in a statement released after the meeting.
As can be seen, after the meeting, both countries issued their respective statements outlining some of the agreements reached and proposals made. Additionally, the same document issued by the U.S. State Department stated that the migration talks "provide an opportunity to discuss the mutual implementation of the Migration Agreements (comprised of a series of bilateral agreements between the United States and Cuba made in 1984, 1994, 1995, and 2017)."«
For its part, Cuba reiterated that "the United States must stop obstructing and violating the rights of Cubans to travel to third countries in the area" and demanded "compliance with bilateral migration agreements in their entirety and not selectively.".
Finally, although the meeting represents progress after nearly four years without dialogue between these countries, it also served as an opportunity to criticize the agreements that have been broken. Cuba reproaches the United States for not fulfilling its commitments regarding visas, and Washington denounces that Havana has not accepted any deportations of Cubans since last October via commercial or charter flights from U.S. territory. It is hoped that the talks will foster collaboration and achieve objectives that benefit both migrants and the countries involved.
News report based on information from: El Economista, France 24 and On Cuba news.