The deputies of Cuba's National Assembly of People's Power today unanimously approved the Migration Law, considered an essential norm for a more efficient management of the island's migration process.
Presenting the law before the legislative body, First Colonel Mario Méndez, head of the Directorate of Identification, Immigration and Alien Affairs of the Ministry of the Interior, stressed that the new legal instrument seeks to achieve an updated migration system that offers a response to the projections of the country's new economic and development model.
Méndez pointed out that the law seeks to regulate under an integral conception the Cuban migratory system and to establish as a legal rule the principle of effective migratory residence.
The law, he added, includes the rights and migratory categories of Cuban citizens and foreigners, as well as the new figures authorized for permanent residence.
He pointed out that it includes the migratory treatment to be offered in cases of citizens who renounce or lose this condition and the treatment to be offered to victims of smuggling of migrants and trafficking in persons, especially women, children and adolescents.
It also establishes the Financial Destination Fund for Migratory Emergencies.
The first colonel announced that since 2013, two million Cuban citizens have traveled abroad on private business, on 8.4 million occasions.
He said that it is estimated that there are more than three million Cubans abroad, of which two million were born in Cuba and the rest are descendants.
Of those born on the island, he said, most of them hold citizenship or residence in the country where they are domiciled. The main settlements of Cubans abroad are identified in the United States, Spain, Mexico and Italy, he added.
Regarding the main aspects that required updating in the regulation, he mentioned the section referring to the limited time of up to 24 months to stay abroad without losing the status of residents.
He explained that it was necessary to renew the concept of resident in the national territory, which was not objectively adjusted to the national realities, as well as the formal process of resettlement in Cuban territory.
It was also decided to readjust the current law due to the absence of legislation that comprehensively develops the issue of citizenship and the lack of a modern treatment of multi-citizenship.
Prior to its presentation in the National Assembly, the law was submitted to a broad consultation process, where 53 of the 67 proposals of the deputies were taken into account.
During the debates prior to the vote on the law, the deputies agreed on its importance to promote ties with the Cuban nationals living abroad and recognized the factors that affect the Cuban migratory processes.