MIAMI, United States. – The United States repatriated this Tuesday 24 Cuban irregular migrants (23 men and one woman) on a deportation flight that arrived at the “José Martí” International Airport, according to a publication of the Ministry of the Interior (MININT) of Cuba on the social network X.
Official media too they specified that just a day before, last Monday, the US Coast Guard returned four other people through the port of Orozco, in Bahía Honda, Artemisa.
According to the MININT, these two operations add up to 87 returns from different countries in the region in 2024, with a total of 1,255 people repatriated to the Island.
Havana and Washington resumed deportation flights in April 2023, focused mainly on people considered “inadmissible” after being detained on the United States border with Mexico. In addition, they maintain a bilateral agreement that establishes that all migrants who arrive by sea to US territory will be returned to the Island.
According to data from the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP), in the last four years more than 860,000 Cuban migrants have entered US territory. In fiscal year 2023, which covers from October 2023 to September 2024, 200,287 Cubans arrived, and in September 9,315 were registered, the lowest number of that entire period.
Numerous groups of Cubans try to cross the Strait of Florida to escape the harsh conditions of life on the Island. In the midst of a context of shortages of food, medical supplies and a serious inflationary crisis, many residents of the largest of the Antilles risk their lives to reach the North American country.
Despite the current immigration crisis, due to which almost half a million Cubans have entered the United States in the last three years, the parole humanitarian program launched by the Biden Administration in January 2023 has contributed to reducing the flow of rafters.
Since the beginning of 2024, returns of Cubans have also been carried out through commercial flights from the Cayman Islands, Bahamas and the Dominican Republic.
