Cuba Ensures Regular, Safe and Orderly Migration for its Citizens

Cuban diplomat, Josefina Vidal, has reiterated here Cuba''s commitment to ensure the regular, safe and orderly migration of the citizens of the Caribbean country, as well as their right to travel and to emigrate.

The general director of the United States Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs made these statements, after the elimination yesterday by the U.S. government of the so-called ‘wet-foot, dry-foot' policy and the parole program for health professionals that encouraged illegal migration to the United States.

On the approval of the agreement on migratory issues between Cuba and the United States, Vidal asserted that a serious problem for the security of both countries and that of our citizens has been eliminated.

That preferential treatment had created serious problems for the security of Cuba, the United States and our citizens, who were exposed to human trafficking, immigration fraud and violence, she said at the International Press Center in this capital.

With this agreement, the Cubans are equaled in migratory terms with the rest of the citizens of the world, and will be subject to U.S. laws, Vidal said.

She also noted that the elimination of those practices, as well as the current Cuban Adjustment Act, was a claim Cuba made for many years to the United States.

She considered that this significant step in the bilateral relations responds to the national interest of the two countries.

Vidal reiterated that the agreement reached by the United States and Cuba is an example of the interest by both governments in normalizing relations.

It is based on the principles and purposes of the United Nations Charter and the political will to strengthen the bilateral ties and to establish new understandings on issues of common interest, she stated.

She also pointed out that there is still a group of pending issues to advance in the relations, such as other policies used for more than five decades within an aggressive and hostile arsenal towards our country. Vidal mentioned the economic, commercial and financial blockade and the territory occupied by of the U.S. naval base in the eastern province of Guantanamo against the will of the Cuban people.