November 29, 2001	Thursday	Ramazan 13, 1422

HAVANA, Nov 28: Cuban President Fidel Castro on Tuesday called for an end to a “terrorist” US immigration policy which Havana blames for the deaths of several children in a recent illegal bid by Cuban migrants to reach US soil.

“We are not accusing the present administration of creating this phenomenon, which is the fruit of a policy of aggression, hostility and crimes against Cuba that has been followed for decades by administration after administration,” Castro told the estimated 300,000 people gathered outside the US Interests Section here to protest the law.

But, he added, “we nonetheless have the right to demand an end to this savage and barbaric policy.”

The 1994-1995 bilateral migration accords call for the repatriation of all Cubans taken into custody at sea. But under Washington’s Cuban Adjustment Act, those who reach US soil — even illegally — are allowed to normalize their status and remain and work in the United States.

Havana blames the act, adopted in 1966, for encouraging human-smuggling and causing several deaths at sea.—AFP