The United States and Cuba want to negotiate at a high level on immigration issues

The Cuban Foreign Ministry said on Twitter on Tuesday that the meeting was scheduled for Thursday in Washington. The Cuban delegation will be headed by Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernandez de Cossio.

The communist-ruled Caribbean nation is currently going through its worst economic crisis in three decades, which has led to a sharp increase in the number of Cuban immigrants. According to US Customs, more than 78,000 Cubans entered the US from Mexico between October and March.

Nicaragua raised visa requirements for Cuban citizens in November. Since then, many Cubans have traveled to the Central American country to continue their journey toward the United States from there.

Former US President Barack Obama pursued an open policy toward Cuba. However, his successor, Donald Trump, reversed and tightened the US embargo on the Caribbean nation that had been in place since 1962. Under Biden, Trump’s difficult course toward Cuba has yet to be reviewed.

Immigration issues were also the focus of a two-day visit by US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken to Panama that began on Tuesday. Consultations between Blinken, US Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mallorcas and his counterparts from nearly 20 countries on the American continent are planned for Wednesday in Panama City, where cooperation on immigration issues will be enhanced.

US authorities arrested more than 221,000 migrants at the border with Mexico in March – the highest number in more than two decades. Most of these immigrants are from Central America and the Caribbean.

Although relatively few people immigrate to the United States from Panama, the largely uninhabited Darien region in the south of the country, which is characterized by dense jungle, has developed into a corridor for immigrants who wish to reach the United States from South America via center of the country. America and Mexico. Darién is located on the border of Colombia.