Nassau, Bahamas - The following was delivered today, October 23rd in the House of Assembly by the Hon. Frederick Mitchell,
Minister of Foreign Affairs and
Immigration, for the Commonwealth of The Bahamas.
Ambassador Soberón Guzmán,
Government Officials,
Members of the press,
We are here today to note the initiation of the new Operational Procedures
for the return, from The Bahamas to Cuba, by sea or air, of irregular
Cuban migrants by The Government of The Bahamas. A central challenge,
with respect to repatriation of Cuban nationals, has been the bureaucracy,
on the part of both Countries, which has bogged down the process.
An inter-agency delegation, led by Mr. Philip Miller, Acting Permanent
Secretary of the Foreign Ministry, met with Cuban Officials at the First
Technical Meeting on Migratory Issues between Cuba and The Bahamas on
2nd and 3rd September, 2013 in Havana, Cuba and,
as an outcome of that Meeting, consensus was reached on new procedures
to govern the repatriation of Cuban nationals.
The central objective of this agreement is to reduce the time for
return of irregular Cuban migrants arriving in The Bahamas. Through
strengthening the communication mechanisms between both of our Country’s
maritime interdiction entities and placing concrete, time-bound commitments
on both Countries, we expect to reduce the repatriation time for irregular
Cuban migrants from the current situation, where migrants might remain
in the detention Centre for months prior to repatriation, to repatriation
within several weeks, at most. These procedures achieve this result
whilst also maintaining the space for respecting our obligations to
the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, which is to ensure
the proper screening of migrants for political asylum.
While these procedures are a tangible solution to repatriation challenges
facing both Governments, discussions will be ongoing between our two
Governments to further work together on wider migratory issues. I thank
the technical team of officials from the Royal Bahamas Defence Force,
Ministry of National Security, Attorney General’s Office, Department
of Immigration and Foreign Ministry that assisted with negotiating these
Procedures. We also thank the Cuban Government for their continued cooperation
in this regard and we look forward to further dialogue and collaboration
to solve our mutual challenges.
