The government of USA returned to Cuba on Monday a group of 31 irregular migrants who tried to reach its shores after leaving the island illegally by sea, reported the Ministry of the Interior (Minint).
The US Coast Guard Service returned the migrants through the Port of Orozco (Bahía Honda), in the western province of Artemisa, reports the agency efe.
This February 20, the US Coast Guard Service returned 31 Cubans who had participated, indistinctly, in three illegal exits from the country. Most are from Matanzas and Cienfuegos. There are 34 operations in 2023, from various countries in the region, with 2,297 returned. pic.twitter.com/WSqOCyzyDA
— MININT_CUBA (@minint_cuba) February 21, 2023
The group was made up of 29 men and two women, mostly residents in the provinces of Matanzas and Cienfuegos, who had participated indistinctly in three illegal exits, detailed the note of the Ministry
With this refund operation, number 34, there are 2,297 irregular migrants returned in 2023 from various countries in the region, adds the text.
The previous week, 64 undocumented Cubans were returned from the United States, the Cayman Islands and the Bahamas, and another 12 from the Dominican Republic.
Cuba maintains that it maintains its commitment “to a regular, safe and orderly migration” and insists on “the danger and life-threatening conditions represented by illegal departures from the country by sea,” the agency highlights.
For several months now, a record number of migrants trying to cross irregularly, motivated, for the most part, by a new unprecedented migratory exodus from Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela, has been registered on the southern border of the United States.
In the case of Cuba, a total of 224,607 citizens arrived at the southern US border in fiscal year 2022 (between October 1, 2021 and September 30, 2022), according to the US Customs and Border Protection Office. .UU.
According to data from the US Coast Guard, in the current fiscal year that body has intercepted 5,576 Cuban rafters, a figure close to the 6,182 that it apprehended in the previous period.
Cuba, current migratory crisis: characteristics and testimonies (I)
At the beginning of this year, the government in Washington implemented a policy to welcome 30,000 migrants a month from Venezuela, Haiti, Cuba and Nicaragua.
In parallel, it will immediately expel Mexico to migrants from those countries who attempt to cross into their territory irregularly. Mexico, for its part, agreed to admit migrants who are expelled from US territory.
Efe/OnCuba.
