The US delivers 64 migrants to Cuba and there are 2,998 returned by various countries

The Ministry of the Interior (Minint) has reported that the United States Coast Guard Service (USCG) delivered 64 rafters to Cuba, bringing the number of irregular migrants who have returned to the island from various countries in the region to 2,998 so far in 2023. The repatriated Cubans, consisting of 54 men and 10 women, left the country illegally by sea and were intercepted by the US Coast Guard in the Florida Straits. Most of them are citizens residing in the provinces of Matanzas and Mayabeque. Two of the Cubans were transferred to investigative bodies because they were investigated as possible perpetrators of serious criminal acts.

The return of irregular migrants is part of the migration agreements signed between Cuba and the US, through which 2,165 citizens have been returned to the island this year in 31 operations of the US Coast Guard Service. The Cuban government affirms its commitment to regular, safe, and orderly migration and insists on the danger and risk conditions for life that illegal departures from the country by sea represent.

The US Coast Guard has detained 6,202 Cuban rafters in the last six months, a figure that exceeds the total number of migrants from the island intercepted during the fiscal year 2022. The government of Washington has implemented a policy to welcome 30,000 migrants per month from Venezuela, Haiti, Cuba, and Nicaragua, while immediately expelling undocumented immigrants from those countries who try to cross the southern border into its territory irregularly from Mexico. Mexico, in turn, agreed to admit 30,000 migrants a month who are expelled from US territory.