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HAVANA, Jan 4 (Reuters) – The U.S. embassy in Havana resumed full immigrant visa processing and consular providers for the primary time since 2017 on Wednesday in a bid to stem the record-breaking circulation of unlawful migrants from Cuba north to america.
The embassy, which looms over Cuba’s waterfront Malecon boulevard, slashed providers in 2017 after a number of of its workers have been stricken with a nonetheless largely unexplained ailment dubbed “Havana Syndrome.” It was first reported amongst U.S. officers in 2016 and signs included nausea and reminiscence lapses.
Cubans have been as a substitute required to journey to Guyana for visa processing, a expensive journey nicely out of attain for many on the island. The U.S. embassy in Havana started restricted visa processing final yr and in September introduced the 2023 full reopening, to “guarantee protected, authorized, and orderly migration of Cubans,” it stated.
At dawn on Wednesday, dozens of Cubans, some who had waited years for appointments, assembled at a small park close to the embassy, fiddling with paperwork and chatting with household as they awaited directions from embassy workers.
Barbara Nodas, 20, stated she was ready to choose up a visa that might reunite her together with her father in Tampa, Florida, a course of that had taken greater than two years.
“The American dream of many individuals is coming true,” she stated, almost in tears. “This can be a long-awaited second.”
However Nodas, who traveled from japanese Cuba to choose up her visa, nonetheless ranks among the many fortunate few who will make the voyage north legally.
Washington final yr issued 20,000 immigrant visas to Cubans, together with a restricted quantity out of Havana, consistent with beforehand signed migration accords, and has stated it goals to do the identical in 2023.
Cuba and america have additionally resumed once-regular talks on migration in a bid to tamp down the circulation.
However a record-breaking 250,000 Cubans have nonetheless left the island previously yr for america, most by way of harmful, irregular routes, touring overland from Central America north to the border or throughout the Straits of Florida in precarious home made rafts.
Cuba blames the U.S. embargo, an online of U.S. legal guidelines and laws that complicate enterprise and monetary transactions with the island, for crippling its economic system and fueling unlawful migration.
Widespread shortages of meals, gasoline, drugs and electrical energy – made worse by the coronavirus pandemic – have prompted scattered unrest on the island and sought many to hunt alternate options overseas.
Reporting by Dave Sherwood and Mario Fuentes in Havana
Modifying by Matthew Lewis
Our Requirements: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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