{"id":251892,"date":"2022-04-22T15:54:57","date_gmt":"2022-04-22T19:54:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/?p=251892"},"modified":"2022-04-22T15:54:57","modified_gmt":"2022-04-22T19:54:57","slug":"united-states-and-cuba-release-statements-on-meeting-on-migration-issues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oncubanews.com\/en\/cuba-usa\/united-states-and-cuba-release-statements-on-meeting-on-migration-issues\/","title":{"rendered":"United States and Cuba release statements on meeting on migration issues"},"content":{"rendered":"

Migration talks between the United States and Cuba began in Washington this Thursday, meetings that were to be held twice a year, but were interrupted in 2018. <\/span>The last meeting was on February 11 of that year<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

The agenda includes mainly immigration issues and consular services, according to the parties.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

On Wednesday, before the tone of the talks was made public, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas traveled to Panama to attend a regional meeting on the migration crisis in Central America. There he made U.S. concerns known. \u201cI don\u2019t want to get ahead of the dialogue between the United States and Cuba, but as everyone knows, we have had migration accords with the country of Cuba for many, many years.\u00a0Those were discontinued, and we will explore the possibility of resuming that,\u201d said Mayorkas <\/span>at a press conference<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

This Thursday, the United States and Cuba finally released two statements about the meeting on migration issues held in Washington DC. The meeting was led by Deputy Assistant Secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs Emily Mendrala for the U.S. delegation, and Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fern\u00e1ndez de Coss\u00edo for the Cuban delegation.<\/span><\/p>\n

In its text, the U.S. side announced that as of May it will begin to process immigrant visas for Cuban citizens \u201con a limited basis\u201d at its Embassy in Havana. The United States addressed the issue of consular services at the Embassy \u201cto include resumption of immigrant visa services on a limited basis starting in May, current American citizen services, and current issuance of emergency non-immigrant visas,\u201d <\/span>the note stated<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Washington also expressed that \u201cEnabling safe, legal, and orderly migration between Cuba and the United States remains a mutual interest between the United States and Cuba and is consistent with U.S. interests in fostering family reunification and promoting greater respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms in Cuba.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThese migration talks,\u201d the statement says, \u201cprovide an opportunity for discussions on mutual implementation of the Migration Accords (comprised of a series of bilateral agreements between the United States and Cuba done in 1984, 1994, 1995, and 2017).\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Conversations between Cuba and the US to deal with migration issues in the face of the rise of Cuban migration<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n