Cuba and the United States will hold this Wednesday in Washington a new round of talks on migration issues, an official of the Cuban Foreign Ministry informed today.
The deputy director general for the United States of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Minrex), Johana Tablada, explained in statements to the press that the meeting will be held with the expectation of focusing on aspects that reiterate respect for the agreements for a safe and regular migration.
Tablada pointed out that in 2022 positive steps were registered in this area, particularly with the resumption of visa issuance at the U.S. embassy in Havana and the granting of visas established in the migration agreements.
As reported by the Cuban News Agency, the diplomat recalled that visas were affected for more than six years, "due to a unilateral and arbitrary decision taken by the U.S. government, on the basis of slander".
The Cuban delegation will be headed by Minrex Vice-Minister Carlos Fernández de Cossío, who will address issues to which the Cuban government attaches great importance, such as the incentives that remain for irregular emigration, he said.
Among those incentives, he said, is the persistence of extreme and inhumane measures against the Caribbean nation, which directly influence the socioeconomic conditions of the population and have a direct link with the decision of many families to try to seek a life project outside Cuba, specifically in the United States.
"The Cuban government holds the U.S. government responsible for these high migratory flows, for these extreme measures that have caused a direct threat to the welfare and livelihood of our population and we consider that regular migration will not be achieved, and this issue will not be resolved as long as this policy of suffocation against Cuba exists," he denounced.
During the migration talks, the Cuban delegation will reiterate its request for the reestablishment of the programs for granting non-emigrant visas.
He specified that the Caribbean nation will also denounce the political asylum granted to the hijacker of an airplane, an explicit breach of the migratory agreements and which constitutes a danger to the aviation security of both countries.
Tablada underlined that "Cuba is the victim of a deliberate policy that attempts against the welfare of its population, against its economic development and against the public services of our country, including health services and the direct sources of sustenance, which by design have been deliberately designed to be hindered".