• by IPS Correspondents (washington)
• Monday, November 07, 1994
• Inter Press Service

WASHINGTON, Nov 07 (IPS) - The United States resumed the process of repatriating Cuban refugees from the U.S. military base in Guantanamo, Cuba when a Saturday decision by an appeals court in the U.S. state of Georgia lifted a suspension ordered on Oct. 25.

State Department spokeswoman Christine Shelly said that another 1,000 Cubans presently being held at the base have expressed their desire to leave the camp, which they share with Haitian refugees.

In addition to the 22 refugees repatriated after the Saturday decision, 57 have managed to flee the camp illicitly and others have been picked up by U.S. troops as they sought to escape.

The Georgia court suspended repatriation in October, when a group of Cuban-American lawyers in Miami charged that the government was forcibly repatriating Cuban refugees.

"Now that the injunction of Oct. 25th has been lifted, we hope we will receive authorisation from Cuban authorities to return Cubans at a faster pace," Shelly said at a press conference.

She added that negotiations toward that end continued in Havana, adding that under U.S. foreign policy, no one is repatriated against their will.

More than 30,000 Cubans left their Caribbean island nation, hoping to reach the nearby shores of the United States when a conflict with its powerful neighbour led the Cuban government to lift all obstacles to illegal emigration.

The resulting mass exodus stimulated negotiations between the two countries. At the talks, Cuba agreed to stem the tide of illegal emigrants and the United States committed to increasing the number of U.S. immigrant visas granted to Cuban applicants.

There are currently 23,094 Cubans being held in Guantanamo, with 8,665 more on U.S. military bases in Panama.

Meanwhile, 15,224 Haitians have been repatriated from the base in Cuba since the reestablishment of democracy in their country paved the way for their return. Another 5,987 remain at the detention centre.

Shelly expressed confidence that the number of Haitians at Guantanamo would continue to drop.

© Inter Press Service (2014) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service

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