By IANS/EFE,
Havana: Cuban and US diplomats have discussed here a proposal for a new migration accord that Havana presented last July, officials said.
“Both sides evaluated how the existing migration accords are working,” the Cuban government said in a statement Friday. “They also discussed aspects contained in the new proposal for a migration accord presented by Cuba.”
The Cuban government said its proposal seeks “to guarantee legal, safe and orderly migration between the two countries and to cooperate in the most effective way in dealing with human trafficking”.
The US delegation was led by Craig Kelly, principal deputy assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere Affairs, while the Cuban contingent was headed by Deputy Foreign Minister Dagoberto Rodriguez.
The bilateral talks on migration were suspended by the US administration in 2003, and were reopened last year by President Barack Obama, among other steps to thaw relations with Havana.
Havana and Washington signed their first migration accord in 1994, and since then the US has annually issued 20,000 visas to Cubans.