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Andrea Rodriguez. Associated Press. Posted on Tue, Dec. 17,
2002 in The Miami Herald.
HAVANA - U.S. officials gave Cuba a list Tuesday of nearly 500 people they
say have been refused permission to leave the island despite having been cleared
for emigration to the United States.
"We once again ask the Cuban government to grant these individuals exit
permits," Kevin Whitaker of the U.S. State Department's Office of Cuban
Affairs told reporters after a day of talks in Havana.
The communist government's refusal to allow some Cubans to leave, even after
they have received U.S. permission to legally emigrate, has been a constant
complaint of American authorities at the migration talks, which are held twice a
year. U.S. officials said the list was delivered following Tuesday's news
conference, after Cuban representatives said they had not received the names.
Cuban officials, meanwhile, used the latest round of talks to demand the
return of a crop-duster plane seized by migrants who flew to Key West, Fla.,
last month.
Cuba regularly accuses the United States of encouraging illegal Cuban
migration by failing to adequately prosecute immigrant smugglers as well as
people who steal or commandeer boats or aircraft on the island to reach American
soil.
"The Cuban side was emphatic in establishing the need for the immediate
return of the kidnapper (of the aircraft), the migrants and the plane,"
said Rafael Dausa, North America Director in Cuba's Foreign Ministry.
Dausa said his team also demanded that the U.S. government grant visas to
relatives of five convicted spies serving time in the United States.
Along with demanding exit permits for those cleared for legal U.S.
immigration, American authorities "expressed our continuing concern about
the harassment ... of some returned migrants," said Whitaker, who headed
his country's team at the talks.
The alleged harassment of some migrants repatriated after being picked up at
sea included "discriminatory treatment, including loss of employment,
repeated arbitrary fines and denial of access to schooling," Whitaker said.
The talks, alternatively held in Havana and New York every six months, were
set up by 1994 and 1995 accords governing migration between the two countries. | 
