Havana, July 20 (EFE).- Cuba has received this week 87 irregular migrants returned from the United States in two groups -by air and by sea- with which there are 4,121 returnees from different countries so far this year, the Ministry of the Interior (Minint) reported this Thursday.
A new group of 33 irregular migrants – made up of two women and 31 men – arrived this morning at the José Martí International Airport in Havana on the fourth charter deportation flight carried out this year by the US authorities.
Of these last returned Cubans, 12 had left the country illegally by sea and the rest had traveled abroad legally and then joined irregular routes to reach US territory, the report said.
Returns by air between Cuba and the US remained suspended since December 2020 until both countries agreed last November to resume deportation flights for “inadmissible” migrants held at the border with Mexico.
The first returned by the US Department of Immigration and Customs Control (ICE) after the resumption of flights were 123, which arrived in Havana on April 24. This group was followed by another 66 and 36 returnees in the air operations carried out on May 10 and June 22, respectively.
Cuba and the US have a bilateral agreement so that all migrants who arrive by sea are returned to the island.
On July 17, the US Coast Guard (USCG) handed over 54 Cubans (50 men and four women) intercepted at sea after participating in two illegal departures from Cuba.
During this fiscal year, which began on October 1, 6,800 Cubans have been intercepted by the US USCG on trips to the Florida coast.
In the operations reported on this date, two of those returned “were on probation for compliance with criminal sanctions” at the time of leaving the island and “they will be made available to the corresponding courts for the revocation of said benefit,” said the Ministry.
Washington has been applying a new immigration rule since May 11 that restricts access to asylum on the border with Mexico and replaces Title 42, a Trump administration rule that allowed hot returns under cover of a possible spread of the coronavirus.
The new norm qualifies migrants who cross the border irregularly and who have not requested protection in a third country during their journey to the United States as “unfit” to request asylum. EFE
