(EFE).- The US immigration authorities released this Thursday a group of Cuban asylum seekers who were waiting to be deported and who They were on a list with confidential data of more than 6,000 immigrants that was accidentally leaked In Internet.
As reported by the newspaper miami heralda group of up to 17 undocumented Cubans who were detained at the Broward Transition Center, in Pompano Beach (Florida), began to be released this Thursday and were received by their relatives.
“I’m going to celebrate my freedom, something we’ve been waiting for a long time,” young Andy García, 26, told the newspaper, one of those who were released this Thursday and who, like his compatriots, turned themselves in to the immigration authorities of USA last October after crossing the border with Mexico.
“I am going to celebrate my freedom, something we have been waiting for a long time,” young Andy García, 26, one of those who were released this Thursday, told the newspaper.
The Cubans had not been able to demonstrate before an immigration judge that they were politically persecuted and that they feared for their lives in case they were returned to the Island, a figure that in the Immigration courts is known as “credible fear”, for which they were waiting to be deported.
However, on November 28, the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service (ICE) mistakenly released a document on the internet with the identities, ages and nationality, among other data, of 6,252 immigrants in its custody, who claimed to be victims of torture and persecution in their countries of origin.
In early December, officials from the government’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) told the Cuban government in a phone call that it would delay deportations to the island due to the leak, indirectly confirming to Havana that potential Cuban deportees they were fleeing persecution or torture.
The relatives of the Cubans, who in recent days had gathered outside the immigration detention center with posters calling for the release of their loved ones, received initial information about the release on Tuesday night, according to the newspaper Miami Herald.
In recent days, and after the leak, the federal congresswoman from Florida María Elvira Salazar urged the Secretary of National Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, to stop the deportation of 46 Cubans who were asylum seekers.
“The safety and well-being of the refugees fleeing the (Cuban) regime must be the guiding principle of our immigration policy on Cuba,” Salazar said in his letter.
“The safety and well-being of the refugees fleeing the (Cuban) regime must be the guiding principle of our immigration policy on Cuba,” Salazar said in his letter.
Salazar described the leak as “dangerous to life, and unacceptable”, and urged Mayorkas to take “the necessary measures to protect these people and reconsider their asylum claims”, since the US had no way of guaranteeing their safety if They were deported to the island.
The serious situation in Cuba was recalled this Thursday by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) in a balance in which it recalled that the Island, Venezuela and Nicaragua close 2022 with almost 1,500 people imprisoned for political reasons.
In a statement, the IACHR described the governments of these three countries as “authoritarian” and accused them of using the judiciary to prosecute and imprison people for political reasons.
“The independence and autonomy of the judiciary is an essential element for the existence of a rule of law,” claimed the commission, an autonomous body of the Organization of American States (OAS), based in Washington.
In total in the three countries, the commission reported 1,467 detainees for political reasons, counting civilians and soldiers. Cuba is the country with the most prisoners of this type, with 1,034 people detained as of November 2022.
It is followed by Venezuela, with 247 political prisoners as of October of this year, and Nicaragua, with a total of 195 detainees.
Persons deprived of liberty under these governments are also treated differently from the rest of the prison population.
Persons deprived of their liberty under these governments are also treated differently from the rest of the prison population, the IACHR stressed, “which has caused a serious deterioration in health” in several of them.
There is little official information on the situation of the detainees, since they are isolated and it is difficult for them to maintain regular contact with their families and in some cases they are subjected to torture and cruel treatment, denounced the IACHR.
Women detainees also face violence based on their gender, as well as “ill-treatment as a method of punishment, repression and humiliation,” the commission stressed.
In early December, the President of the United States, Joe Biden, reiterated his request to the Cuban government to release the “political prisoners” detained after the July 2021 protests on the island and who have received sentences of up to 30 years. jail.
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