Cubans abroad could lose their homes on the island (article source by Nora Gámez Torres)
Contrary to what was reported by some media (the Spanish press agency EFE and some Italians) the proposed immigration law published last week by the Cuban Parliament and which will be voted on in July, does not remove restrictions on the rights of Cubans living abroad and, indeed, includes new provisions that could put the property rights of many who have left the dictatorship in recent years are in danger.
It is true that the draft eliminated the two-year deadline as the authorized time to be abroad before Cubans are considered “emigrants” and stripped of their residence, property and political rights. That temporal provision, which had actually been suspended already in 2020 (i.e. four years ago), was however replaced in the proposal by the much more rigorous notion of “effective migratory residence”, which requires spending “most of the time” a calendar year in the country or a combination of time and “other material evidence demonstrating roots in the country” (in Cuba, ed.).
With the new rules, those who are classified as “residents abroad”, that is, a large portion of recent immigrants, will not be able to maintain their residence on the island as before, leaving the question of property rights open. Currently, only Cubans with permanent residency can own homes or private businesses. In a state TV program, a senior official of the Ministry of the Interior, lieutenant colonel Raylan Hernández Concepción, evaded questions about ownership rights. “The law has no direct relationship with the exercise of property rights,” she said when the presenter asked if with the new law Cubans living abroad “would no longer lose their rights here.”
The head of the immigration section of the Ministry of the Interior, Colonel Roberto Aguilera Puig, clarified that the intention is actually to tighten controls on who can obtain permanent residency on the island, explaining that the “effective residence” requirement allows the Ministry to know more accurately who resides in the country. Another “benefit,” he said, is that it closes two legal avenues that previously allowed Cuban exiles to maintain their permanent residence on the island without ceasing to reside and spend much of their time abroad: namely the special permit to live abroad, the so-called PRE, and the process known as «repatriation».
“Effective residency”, declared Colonel Roberto Aguilera Puig, allows us to “resolve the legal contradiction of considering Cuban citizens who maintain their domicile in Cuba with the status of residents abroad”. Cubans residing abroad will therefore have 180 days to decide whether to return to the country and “submit” to the new effective residency rules or be considered residents abroad, explained Lieutenant Colonel Raylan Hernández Concepción.
Several media reports have instead given great emphasis to the elimination of the 24-month restriction, concluding it is not known on what basis the proposed immigration law would allow Cubans abroad to keep their properties on the island. “The fact that we have eliminated the 24-month deadline does not mean that the Cuban regime’s migration policy has changed,” he explained. Eloy Viera CañiveCuban lawyer and contributor to the site El Toqueadding that “the Cuban regime’s logic of limiting the rights of emigrants has not changed. We will have to wait for future regulations or changes to other regulations to have a clear picture.”
Paolo Manzo, 26 June 2024
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