Cuba to remove travel restrictions for emigrating citizens

As reported by India Times, Cuba’s government has announced plans to remove some of the restrictions preventing its citizens from emigrating abroad, said Ricardo Alarcon, Cuban National Assembly president.

Alarcon says that Cuba is building towards a profound and radical reform of emigration, not revealing many details, but calling it a priority issue for the country. The question of emigration is one that the government is currently debating at the highest level of government, he said.
Alarcon called emigration one of the topics most manipulated by the USA ever since the 1959 Revolution, when it started being used as a propagandistic means of distorting Cuba’s reality.

The island country has imposed strict travel restrictions for nearly half a century, yet they have not hindered thousands of citizens from illegally emigrating each year--oftentimes in dangerous ocean voyages via rickety boats.

Since 1966, the American government has granted Cuban citizens automatic residence if they are able to reach the United States. To legally travel abroad, Cubans require a permit valid for 30 days, which can be extended ten times, after which the travellers must return to the country or lose their right to stay in Cuba.

The formalities to acquire the visas and permits are often accompanied by various fees which make overseas travel unaffordable for thousands of Cubans, whose median monthly salary is $20 or less. Nevertheless, over 30,000 Cubans emigrate legally each year.