The Cuban Ministry of Interior (MININT) announced on Friday that the US has returned 136 raftsmen to the island rescued by Coast Guard between January 18 and 20, which returned 1,188 migrants in just 20 days in January from this country.
According to a brief statement from the Cuban state news agency, most of the group, consisting of 121 men, 14 women and one child, are residents of the central provinces of Sancti Spíritus, Ciego de Ávila and Camagüey, who set out to sea in nine boats on different dates.
The MININT, which did not provide any further information in this regard, specified this Four of the newly returned are being examined “Because he is allegedly guilty of serious criminal activity.”
according to the note, Then there are the Cubans sent back by the US and the authorities of the Bahamas and the Cayman Islandswhere a large number of raftsmen stop, with 12 return campaigns so far in 2023 There are 1,333 migrants who have been returned to Cuba.
The ministry continued to point this out On Sunday, January 8, there was “the largest repatriation in recent years” by the US Coast Guard, with 273 people that they “were involved in illegal exits from the country” and that they were repatriated via a port in Matanzas.
The Cuban regime insists it stands by its commitment “to regular, safe and orderly migration” and recalls “the dangers and life-threatening conditions posed by illegal exits from the country by sea”.
The US government implemented a policy to accept 30,000 migrants per month from Cuba, Venezuela, Haiti and Nicaragua in the first week of January, which includes the immediate deportation to Mexico of migrants from these countries who attempt to enter Mexico irregularly.
For its part, Mexico has agreed to accept 30,000 migrants a month who are being deported from US territory.
The repatriation numbers will be released shortly after US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) reports it December became the month when most Cubans arrived at the US borders and asked for refuge.
According to the facility In the last month of 2022 alone, it intercepted 44,064 migrants from the island. That figure broke previous monthly records: notably November’s 35,881, an amount that was already up from October’s 29,878.