US sends official to Cuba for migration talks

US sends official to Cuba for migration talks
(AFP)

WASHINGTON — US President Barack Obama's administration on Wednesday
sent its highest-ranking envoy yet to Cuba for fresh talks on migration
issues with the communist-ruled island.

Craig Kelly, the principal deputy assistant secretary of state for
Western Hemisphere affairs, traveled to Havana to lead the US side in
the talks which will take place Friday, the State Department said.

"The discussions will focus on how best to promote safe, legal and
orderly migration between Cuba and the United States," it said in a
statement.

The Obama administration last year resumed talks on migration with Cuba
which had been conducted every two years until they were suspended in
2003 by former president George W. Bush.

Kelly marks the senior-most official to head to Cuba for the talks,
although envoys of his rank regularly went to Havana for the dialogue
before the suspension.

Another senior US official, Bisa Williams, visited Havana in September
last year to discuss another prospect for improving relations --
resuming direct mail between the neighboring countries which has been
suspended since 1963.

Obama took office last year with a mission of reaching out to
adversaries including Cuba. The United States broke off relations with
the communist island in 1961.

The Obama administration has lifted travel and money transfer
restrictions on Cuban-Americans with relatives in Cuba, but it has urged
Havana to free political prisoners and improve political freedoms.

Cuba's government has a longstanding interest in migration dialogue with
the United States as the Caribbean nation is embarrassed by persistent
illegal US-bound emigration of its nationals across the shark-infested
Florida Straits.

AFP: US sends official to Cuba for migration talks (17 February 2010)
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