As of March 13, Cubans who wish to transit through Jamaica will be required to have a visa. With the brief announcement released on social networks by the Ministry of National Security, a route used by many island nationals to travel to Nicaragua and from there continue their journey to the United States is made difficult.
Since March 1 of last year, when the Government of Jamaica announced that Cubans would not be asked for a visa, this route became the springboard to emigrate given the few options for connections between the Island and Nicaragua. Travelers can stay three days in Jamaican territory with the only requirement of presenting an itinerary in which they had to specify which country they would travel to.
Kingston soon became a branch for the Cuban exodus that soon escaped the control of the authorities. The Minister of National Security, Horace Chang, acknowledged in November of last year his “concern” because the flow of people from the Island was aimed at their irregular entry into the United States.
“We are aware of the challenge and we are looking at how that problem can be corrected,” Chang told the local media The Gleaner.
Travelers can stay three days in Jamaican territory with the only requirement of presenting an itinerary in which they had to specify which country they would travel to
Officials from the Passport, Immigration and Citizenship Agency (Pica) revealed to the same outlet that “hundreds of Cubans traveled from the Island in the last three years to ensure passage to Central and North America.” One of them said that the lack of control occurred because the “customer service representatives” were in charge of reviewing the documentation of the Cubans.
These people, he stressed, “were not trained and only collected documents, passports and collected fees”, which allowed some to present “fraudulent” papers and were allowed free transit through Jamaica. He assured that they realized it when the process was done from behind, “we detected all that.”
Questioned on the subject, the executive director of Pica, Andrew Wynter, limited himself to pointing out that “the matter has been referred to the Ministry of National Security.”
The visa announcement for Cubans comes at a time when the Joe Biden Administration has been imposing additional rules and restrictions in the face of an increase in migrants from Cuba, Nicaragua, Haiti and Venezuela to the southern border.
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