Cuban Freedoms

[CCCPneubauten]

Can Cubans leave when they want, I mean I hear about the boat people and all that, but will the government let them leave legaly?

[CCCPneubauten]

Any one at all know?!?!

Any help would be nice comrades...thanks...

[Hopes_Guevara]

I am unsure... But I think every Cubans, if they are not criminals under Cuban law, have right to leave when they want.
That's just my own inferring. It's sorry I can't help you anymore.

[CCCPneubauten]

Then why do some try to come on boats?

[which doctor]

Originally posted by [email protected] 31 2005, 12:59 AM
Then why do some try to come on boats?
I don't think they can legally fly to america and immigrate that way. Very few people actual come on boats. Their stories are just hyped by the US press. The US has a policy where any Cuban who sets foot on US soil, is entitled to stay. People emigrate to different countries all the time. I suppose with all the US propaganda the US may seem like a pleasant place to live for anti-communist Cubans.

[NovelGentry]

The number of Cubans who attempt to flea the country is less than 2%, the number allowed to leave legally is less than 1%. In most cases where people are disallowed to leave legally it is because they have family that is still in Cuba and can be said to be dependent on them. Many Cubans attempt to leave to help support their family, certainly the Cuban government feels they can stay in Cuba and support their family just fine.

[Severian]

Originally posted by Fist of Blood+Dec 31 2005, 12:19 AM--> (Fist of Blood @ Dec 31 2005, 12:19 AM)
[email protected] 31 2005, 12:59 AM
Then why do some try to come on boats?
I don't think they can legally fly to america and immigrate that way. Very few people actual come on boats. Their stories are just hyped by the US press. The US has a policy where any Cuban who sets foot on US soil, is entitled to stay. [/b]
Exactly. If you raft over, you are automatically given residency under the 1962 Cuban Adjustment Act. Until '94 or so, this was true even if you were picked up at sea; now Cubans intercepted at sea are sent back. The Coast Guard cynically calls this the "wet foot, dry foot" policy.

The double standard compared to Haitian rafters is glaring, and has led to a lot of controversy in Florida.

The automatic residency has also been used to encourage and reward Cubans who hijacked boats or planes in the past.

The U.S. grants only 20,000 visas a year for Cubans to immigrate legally. And that's under an agreement signed with the Cuban government to resolve the '94 rafters crisis.

That is, the Cuban government pressed the U.S. to admit more Cubans as legal immigrants who wouldn't have to risk their lives crossing the Florida straits. Which shows their approach is the opposite of any Berlin Wall policy. "Building socialism is the task of free men and women," Fidel says, and Havana's actions say the same.

Washington agreed to the 20,000 visas in exchange for the Cuban government promising to resume discouraging illegal crossings. But there's still a waiting list, so some people still raft over for the automatic instant residency.

[sapho]

In 1984, the State Department agreed to allow up to 20,000 Cubans a year to come to the U.S, but the U.S did not live up to that agreement. It interpreted it as a meaning that they could allow from ONE person a year to 20,000 a year.

Thousands of people have permission from Fidel to leave BUT no U.S visas. It is a manipulative way and a cruel way for the U.S to make Cuba look as if it is stopping people from leaving and forcing them to risk their lifes on the high seas, when really it is U.S IMMIGRATION POLICY who is at FAULT.

Cubans who travel by raft and reach the U.S are treated as HEROS by the U.S but Haitians who come here are treated NOT as heroes and sent back.

This is NOT fair policy. :ph34r: