Havana, April 21 (ACN) The General Director for Consular Affairs and Cubans Residing Abroad, Ernesto Soberon, ratified the island’s commitment to a regular, orderly and safe migration.
On his Twitter account, the Foreign Ministry official also defended the Cuban citizens’ right to travel, emigrate and return in tune with the Cuban migration law.
In a thread of messages, Soberon said such right of the Cuban citizens is affected by the measures adopted by the former US Donald Trump administration which are still in force as they hinder communication between Cuban families on both sides.
The shutdown of consular services at the US embassy in Havana, the arbitrary interruption of visas for Cuban nationals forcing them to travel to third countries with no guarantees of receiving the visas, among other measures, constitute an hurdle against the regular flow of travelers, said the diplomat.
Cuban and US delegations held migration talks on Thursday in D.C. as part of a mechanism of exchange stalled since 2018 by the Donald Trump administration.
Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernandez de Cossio, who headed the delegation to the round of talks, twitted that bilateral US-Cuba migration accords are in force and commit the two governments to guarantee regular, orderly and safe migration.
In 2017, Washington reduced its personnel at its Havana embassy and cut the family reunification program and the granting of visas, which has forced Cubans to travel to third countries to apply for visas.
Cuban officials have denounced that despite the compromise taken by Washington to grant 20 thousand visas to Cubans every year, only some four thousand have been granted every year in the recent past.
Deputy Foreign Minister Josefina Vidal recently told foreign media reporters that the migration accords between Cuba and the United States have great importance and if they are not met they can generate migratory peaks increased by the strengthening of coercive measures and hurdles on consular services.
