This Thursday, the tenth deportation flight from the United States arrived in Havana so far this year, with 189 men, 42 women and one minor.
MADRID, Spain.- The United States deported this Thursday 232 Cuban citizens who had left the Island irregularly. The group arrived at the José Martí International Airport, in Havana, on a repatriation flight coordinated between authorities from both countries. This is the tenth flight of this type so far this year, according to official information.
The group was made up of 189 men, 42 women and one minor. Cuban authorities reported that three of the returned people were transferred to the criminal investigation bodies because they were under pending proceedings before leaving the country.
With this return, Cuba counts 38 migrant return operations from various countries in the region during the year, for a total of 1,376 repatriated people.
Deportation flights from the United States to Cuba have been suspended since 2020 and will resume in April 2023, amid increasing migratory pressure on the southern US border. In fiscal year 2024 alone, 217,615 Cubans arrived in the United States, according to figures from the Customs and Border Protection (CBP). In the last four years, the number exceeds 860,000.
The persistent economic crisis in Cuba, marked by food and medicine shortages, inflation, lack of fuel and prolonged blackouts, continues to push tens of thousands of people to try to leave the country through irregular routes, especially to the United States.
Despite the increase in repatriation flights and the tightening of immigration policies in the United States, Cubans continue to undertake irregular routes by land or sea, forced by this deep economic crisis.
