MIAMI, United States. — The Cuban regime will accept deportation flights from the United States, officials from that country told the British agency Reuters under condition of anonymity.
The mechanism involves the deportation to the Caribbean island of Cubans stranded on the southern border of the northern country, in an attempt to deter illegal immigration.
US officials said US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is holding a dozen Cubans in custody who failed an initial asylum test at the border.
Now the US agency is waiting until it has enough Cuban deportees to fill a plane before sending one to Havana, the sources said.
A third source familiar with the matter told the British outlet that there was no new formal agreement for regular deportation flights, but that the island’s regime had agreed to accept occasional groups of deportees.
Regular deportations of Cubans stopped during the COVID-19 pandemic, although the United States continued to deport a small number of Cubans through commercial airlines, he told Reuters another American official.
In fiscal year 2022 they arrived in the US through the border with Mexico more than 220,000 Cubansin what constitutes the largest recorded exodus of Cubans to the northern country.
In the same period, more than 6,000 Cuban rafters arrived on the coast of Florida, although most of them were returned to Cuba in Coast Guard vessels.
Officials from both countries met in Havana this week to address migration issues. After the meeting, it was announced that the US Embassy in Cuba would resume the processing of immigrant visas, suspended since the Donald Trump administration.
Receive information from CubaNet on your cell phone through WhatsApp. Send us a message with the word “CUBA” on the phone +525545038831, You can also subscribe to our electronic newsletter by giving click here.
