Cuba Removes Entry Clearances for Cubans Living Overseas

Cuba´s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Felipe Perez Roque, made the announcement yesterday in a press conference to inform about preparations underway for the upcoming Third Conference on Nation and Migration scheduled from May 21 through 23 in Havana. Mr. Roque said the meeting lays bare that open dialogue with Cuban migrants is irreversible as the topics are broached in a mature and responsible manner. The conference will take place weeks after U.S. President George W. Bush imposed a series of measures to further hamper relations between Cuban-Americans and their relatives on the island.

Mr. Roque noted that all entry clearances for Cubans living overseas who might be willing to travel to their homeland will be removed beginning June 1. From that date on, they could visit the island nation carrying nothing but a passport issued by Cuban consular offices.

According to the latest census, there are 1.3 million Cubans and Cuban-Americans living in the U.S. out of the roughly 1.5 million Cuban nationals now residing in over a hundred countries around the world.

The Cuban foreign minister explained the establishment of entry clearances for Cuban migrants was one of the actions the country was bound to adopt in the past to put up with U.S. hostility and avoid migration from being construed as a political problem.