This content was published on Apr 08, 2023 – 16:33
minutes
HAVANA, April 8 (EFE) – The number of illegal immigrants who have returned to Cuba has reached 3,093 so far this year, most of them from the United States, the Interior Ministry (Minient) reported on Saturday.
The ministry explained that the last of these operations was last Friday, when the US Coast Guard Service delivered 48 Cubans – 42 men and six women – who left illegally by sea.
According to the source, the authorities of the neighboring country have repatriated 2,260 Cubans from January to date.
Cuba has also welcomed migrants from Mexico, the Bahamas and the Cayman Islands in recent weeks.
The serious economic crisis in the country led to an unprecedented mass emigration, especially to the United States.
Last year alone, the US authorities intercepted more than 313,000 Cubans at the southern border with Mexico, which is about 3% of the total population of Cuba.
The figure does not include the thousands of Cubans who left for other destinations such as Mexico, Spain or South America.
The Cuban government affirms that it maintains its commitment to “regular, safe and orderly migration” and insists on the “danger and risk in the conditions of life represented by illegal departure from the country by sea”.
At the beginning of 2023, Washington implemented a program to receive 30,000 immigrants from Venezuela, Haiti, Cuba and Nicaragua every month, and to stop the arrival of large numbers from these countries.
Nearly 14,000 Cubans have benefited from this initiative, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
In parallel, Washington announced that it would immediately expel illegal immigrants from those countries who tried to cross the southern border into its territory irregularly into Mexico.
Mexico, for its part, has agreed to accept 30,000 immigrants per month who are expelled from US soil. EFE
lbp / put
© EFE 2023. Redistribution and redistribution of all or part of the contents of the Efe Services is expressly prohibited, without the prior and express consent of Agencia EFE SA
“Award-winning alcohol trailblazer. Hipster-friendly internetaholic. Twitter ninja. Infuriatingly humble beer lover. Pop culture nerd.”