Havana, Apr 21 (EFE).- The United States Coast Guard Service (USCG) returned 30 rafters to Cuba on Thursday, and with them there are 3,268 irregular migrants returned from various countries in the region in this year, according to the Ministry of the Interior (Minint).
This group of rafters is made up of 24 men and 6 women – mostly residents of the western province of Matanzas – who had left the country illegally and were intercepted at sea by the US SGC.
The MININT note states that so far the US Coast Guard has returned 2,383 Cuban citizens in 37 return operations carried out since the beginning of 2023.
It also ensures that Cuba “maintains firm its commitment to regular, safe and orderly migration,” and alerts about “the danger and life-threatening conditions represented by illegal departures from the country by sea.”
This week, the governments of the Cayman Islands and the Bahamas deported a total of 50 irregular migrants to the island, almost all also from the province of Matanzas and participants in an illegal departure by sea.
In the case of the United States, in the last six months -since last October 1, which marks the beginning of the current fiscal year- the Coast Guard of the North American country has detained more than 6,200 Cuban rafters, a figure that according to its data has exceeded the total number of migrants from the island intercepted during fiscal year 2022.
The Government of Washington implemented at the beginning of 2023 a policy to welcome 30,000 migrants per month from Venezuela, Haiti, Cuba and Nicaragua.
In parallel, it will immediately expel undocumented immigrants from those countries who try to cross the southern border into its territory irregularly to Mexico.
Mexico, for its part, agreed to admit 30,000 migrants a month who are expelled from US territory.
Cuba has also received migrants from Mexico, the Bahamas and the Cayman Islands in recent weeks.
