Nine Latin American Countries Slam US for Creating Migrant Humanitarian Crisis Global Research
go to original August 30, 2016

The Wet-Foot, Dry-Foot Policy (Al Jazeera America News)

The United States’ “wet-foot, dry-foot” rule is prompting a humanitarian crisis, foreign ministers from Ecuador and elsewhere say.

Nine Latin America foreign ministers sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry Monday accusing the United States of fomenting a migration crisis in the region through its Cold War-era immigration policies for Cuban migrants, arguing that President Barack Obama’s failure to change the law despite the recent thaw in relations with his counterpart Raul Castro has adversely impacted the region.

In the letter, the ministers argue that the 1966 U.S. immigration policy toward Cubans known as the Cuban Adjustment Act has “encouraged a disorderly, irregular and unsafe flow of Cubans” through various countries of Latin America on route to the United States and has contributed to a migration and humanitarian crisis in the region.

“Cuban citizens risk their lives, on a daily basis, seeking to reach the United States,” the letter continues. “These people, often facing situations of extreme vulnerability, fall victim to mafias dedicated to people trafficking, sexual exploitation and violence.”

Ecuador and Colombia initially spearheaded the letter, which was signed by seven other countries from South and Central America: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, and Peru.

“The fact that nine foreign ministers have signed this letter shows the strength of the sentiment in Latin America that United States policy is creating a migration crisis in our region,” said Ecuadorean Foreign Minister Guillaume Long in a press conference in Quito Monday. “It’s time for the U.S. to change its outdated immigration policies toward Cubans, because they are undermining regular and safe migration in our continent.”

Read the rest at Global Research

Related: Mass Migration Is Here to Stay — We Must Deal with It Humanely (PanAm Post)

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