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US migration policy ‘incoherent’ and ‘differentiated’

Published:Thursday | April 21, 2022 | 12:08 AM
A US flag flies at the US Embassy in Havana, Cuba, on March 18, 2019, days after the US State Department announced it was eliminating a five-year tourist visa for Cubans. Cuban authorities confirmed on April 19 that migration talks with the US will take pl
AP
A US flag flies at the US Embassy in Havana, Cuba, on March 18, 2019, days after the US State Department announced it was eliminating a five-year tourist visa for Cubans. Cuban authorities confirmed on April 19 that migration talks with the US will take place, the first in four years since the hardening of relations between both countries and amid an increase in arrivals of Cuban citizens to the southern border of the US.

HAVANA (AP):

Two days before the opening of migration talks between Cuba and the United States, which have been paralysed for four years, a high-ranking Cuban official lamented Washington’s “incoherent” and “differentiated” migration policies, and exhorted Washington to comply with current agreements.

The migration meeting will take place amid a dramatic increase in arrivals of Cubans at the southern border of the United States.

“We are noticing, and now much more these days, that there is a differentiated and incoherent approach by the United States towards the migratory issue,” Deputy Foreign Minister Josefina Vidal told a small group of journalists on Tuesday.

The US is financially helping “many countries in the region in order to reactivate their economies, to help them create jobs,” including supporting health and education projects, said Vidal. Washington’s policy is exactly the opposite with Cuba, where it is applying “maximum pressure to the economic order and through coercive measures”.

Cuba’s foreign ministry said on Twitter that the meeting will be held in Washington on Thursday and its delegation will be headed by Deputy Minister Carlos Fernández de Cossio.

The last of these meetings – which, according to agreements between both countries, must be held twice a year – took place in July 2018 under the administration of then President Donald Trump.

Trump ended the policy of rapprochement between both nations that his predecessor, Barack Obama, had begun.

Trump increased sanctions against the Caribbean island, from the cancellation of permits to send remittances or cruise ships, to penalties for companies from third countries that operate in Cuba, to limitation of flights and punishment of oil tankers bound for Cuba.

These measures and the pandemic contributed to an economic crisis in Cuba, with shortages of basic products, power outages and the respective queues and rationing.

Trump withdrew embassy staff in 2017. Thousands of people were left with incomplete family reunification processes or were prevented from travelling unless they carried out visa procedures through Guyana. US President Joe Biden did not relax the tough measures, despite his campaign promises.

“We do not see any justification for not giving all visas to Cuban emigrants in Havana and forcing the majority of Cubans to travel (to Guyana), with the costs that this implies,” added Vidal, who was the head of negotiations for the historic rapprochement with the US in 2014. The talks concluded with the reopening of diplomatic offices and Obama’s trip to the island.