Havana, Cuba, April 26, 2021. The Deputy Minister of Foreign Relations of Cuba, Anayansi Rodríguez Camejo, spoke today in the regional review of the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, an event organized virtually by the International Organization for Migrations (IOM) and the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).
The vice minister, who led the Cuban delegation at this meeting, stressed the Cuban government's commitment to maintaining safe, orderly and regular migratory flows to and from the national territory, even in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.
She also highlighted the negative impact caused by the politicization of immigration relations with Cuba by the United States, causing incentives for irregular and risky emigration. She denounced the validity of the Cuban Adjustment Law, the failure to comply with the commitments signed on immigration matters, the suspension of consular services at US Embassy in Havana and the obstruction of commercial flights and remittances.
This regional review constitutes the first stage of follow-up to the implementation of the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, a document adopted in 2018 as the main cooperation framework in the multilateral sphere to address the issue of international migration.
Intervention by Anayansi Rodríguez Camejo, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs of Cuba, at the regional review meeting of the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration. April 26, 2021.
Mr. António Vitorino, IOM Director General;
Mrs. Alicia Bárcena, Executive Secretary of ECLAC;
Excellencies:
I am forced to initiate this intervention by denouncing that the blockade of the United States government against Cuba prevents my country from accessing the virtual platform used for this meeting on equal terms.
We thank the International Organization for Migration and the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean for organizing this event on a topic so relevant at the regional level, to which the Cuban Government has maintained its political commitment. The updating of the national migration policy since 2013 has been aligned with the spirit of the Pact, leading to a growth in the regular flow of Cubans to and from abroad. In the complex scenario imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, we have worked to ensure the safe return of many Cubans stranded in other countries and immigration procedures for their return have been facilitated.
Excellencies:
The Cuban State continues to make enormous efforts to raise the standards of living and well-being of our people. However, the application and persistence of the cruel and illegal economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the United States government against Cuba for almost six decades, constitutes the main obstacle to the development of my country, subjecting Cuban families to deficiencies and suffering. and it has escalated to unprecedented levels in recent years, even in times of the COVID-19 pandemic. This policy, aimed at causing discouragement among Cubans through deprivation and necessity, constitutes a flagrant violation of their most basic human rights and a stimulus to irregular emigration.
At the same time, since the triumph of the Revolution itself, migratory relations with the United States have been politicized by its successive governments, in order to promote irregular and risky migratory flows from Cuba, to give an image of despair among Cubans and drain the country of qualified personnel. Clear evidence of the above is the persistence of the so-called Cuban Adjustment Law, which encourages illegal and unsafe emigration.
To this is added that, since 2017, the United States government has not fulfilled its commitment to grant at least 20 thousand visas for Cuban citizens per year; unilaterally suspended the immigration and consular services of its embassy in Cuba, forcing Cuban travelers and migrants to travel to third countries to apply for their visas; and it hinders remittances and commercial flights between the two countries.
Excellencies:
The migratory situation in the region is very complex. There is an alarm that thousands of migrants on the southern border of the United States are subjected to detention in precarious conditions, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, and that minors are separated from their families, which is morally unacceptable.
The fulfillment of the objectives of the Pact will only be possible if we address the root causes of poverty, hardship and hunger caused by an unjust and exclusive world economic order, based on ruthless neoliberalism. Let us join forces to build more equitable and inclusive societies and eradicate the great inequalities that persist and deepen in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Thank you