HAVANA: The number of Cubans heading to the US has surged in the months since the historic thaw in bilateral relations — a swell experts attribute to uncertainty over the future of US policy that favours such travellers.

According to the US Customs Department, 9,371 Cuban migrants came into the US between January and March, more than twice the number from the same period in 2014.

As both countries prepare to solidify a breakthrough by opening embassies in each other’s capitals for the first time in half a century, the influx stems from doubt over whether US policies giving preference to Cuban immigrants will change.

Since 1966, America’s Cuban Adjustment Act has offered any citizen of Cuba admission and permanent residence in the US after spending one year in the country, with no yearly quota on immigrants.

In Cuba, “it is said that the first step they will take after the restoration of relations between the US and Cuba is to abolish the aid to Cubans” immigrating, said Orlando Garcia Herrera, a 53-year-old who arrived in Miami from Cuba with a Spanish passport.

Despite the rapprochement in the works, Washington has not indicated it will lift the immigration privileges, which Havana opposes.

In the last eight months the US Coast Guard said 2,620 Cubans have attempted to cross to the US state of Florida by sea, some in very small vessels.

The US has a policy of repatriating Cubans intercepted at sea but allowing those who make it to land to stay in the country — something known as the “wet foot, dry foot policy”. “We’ve started to sea makeshift boats under six meters with five people onboard who arrive in a deplorable state,” said Francisco Figueroa of the Church World Service, an NGO that helps Cubans.

Published in Dawn July 4th, 2015

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