(Havana) Nearly 30,000 Cubans have benefited from new American immigration rules since January, the American Chargé d’Affaires in Havana, Benjamin Ziff, announced on Friday, but the issuance of tourist and business visas remains suspended due to “logistical obstacles”.
To combat illegal immigration, Washington launched a program in January to accept up to 30,000 migrants each month from Nicaragua, Venezuela, Cuba and Haiti.
Regarding Cuba, of which 313,000 nationals illegally joined the United States in 2022, “more than 29,000” visas have been issued “from January until now”, indicated Mr. Ziff in an interview with AFP in La Havana.
In early January, the United States Embassy in the Cuban capital resumed issuing visas for Cubans wishing to settle in the United States, four years after the consulate was closed for alleged health incidents affecting diplomats.
PHOTO YAMIL LAGE, FRANCE PRESS AGENCY
The United States Embassy in Havana
However, no figure was given by the diplomatic representative concerning the number of Cubans who have so far filed an application to benefit from this program.
Meanwhile, Cubans still cannot apply for tourist or business visas, as was the case before the consulate closed in 2017.
Recently, some 300 Cuban self-employed and small business owners asked President Joe Biden in an open letter to honor his commitment to support the island’s nascent private sector, including through the issuance of business visas.
“I have less than a third of the staff that I had five or six years ago in the consular section. Without a full staff, I cannot provide full service,” Ziff explained.
The diplomatic representative blamed the “Cuban government” which “does not allow us to obtain housing for new consuls […]to import materials to repair the embassy” and to have new premises.
“This is more of a logistical obstacle than a political obstacle,” he insisted.
The diplomatic representative indicated that the number of irregular migrants trying their luck by sea through the Florida Strait, which separates Cuba and the United States, has also “decline” since January, from “dozens a day” to ” dozens a week.
Mr. Ziff also rejected the accusation regularly made by Havana that the American embargo and the strengthening of sanctions under Donald Trump (2017-2021), barely loosened under Joe Biden, are stimulating the unprecedented wave of migration affecting the island since 2021, against the backdrop of a serious economic crisis.
“The government is responsible for the Cuban economy […] A democratic and prosperous Cuba depends on Cuba, not on the United States,” he said, saying that “emigration is driven by the absence of hope.”