Presenting the law before the legislative body, First Colonel Mario Mendez, head of the Authority of Identification, Immigration and Foreigners’ Issues of the Ministry of the Interior, stressed that the new legal instrument seeks to achieve an updated migratory system that offers a response to the projections of the country’s new economic and development model.

Mendez pointed out that the law seeks to regulate under a comprehensive conception the Cuban migratory system and to establish as a legal rule the principle of effective migratory residence.

The law, he added, includes the rights and migratory categories of Cuban citizens and foreigners, as well as the new figures authorized for permanent residence.

He pointed out that it includes the migratory treatment to be offered in cases of citizens who renounce or lose this condition and the treatment to be offered to victims of smuggling of migrants and trafficking in persons, especially women, children and teenagers.

It also establishes the Financial Destination Fund for Migratory Emergencies.

The first colonel announced that since 2013, two million Cuban citizens have traveled abroad for private matters, on 8.4 million occasions.

He specified that it is estimated that there are slightly more than three million Cubans abroad, of which two million were born in Cuba and the rest are descendants.

Of those born on the island, he said, most of them hold citizenship or residence in the country where they are living.

The main settlements of Cubans abroad are identified in the United States, Spain, Mexico and Italy, he added.

Regarding the main aspects that required updating in the regulation, he mentioned the section referring to the limited time of up to 24 months to stay abroad without losing the status of residents.

He explained that it was necessary to renew the concept of resident in the national territory, which was not objectively adjusted to the national realities, as well as the formal process of resettlement in Cuban territory.

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