Disagreement remains as US, Cuba end migration talks

Director of the Cuban Foreign Ministry's North American affairs office Josefina Vidal talks to the media during negotiations to restore diplomatic ties with the US in Havana January 21, 2015. [Photo/Agencies]

Josefina Vidal Ferreiro, director general of the US Department with the Cuban Foreign Relations Ministry, hailed the " constructive" dialogue Wednesday, but criticized the persistence of the Cuban Adjustment Act and the wet foot/dry foot policy.

She said that those policies of the United States "contradict the spirit of the migration accords, and continue to be the main stimulus to the illegal migration, human traffic, and illegal entries into the United States of Cuban citizens."

"The Cuban delegation also noted that all the illegal Cuban migrants intercepted at sea are not returned to the island, which is contrary to the migration agreements in 1994 and 1995", Vidal said.

The meeting on Thursday will focus on discussion of the steps for normalization of relations, and the opening of embassies in Havana, the Cuban capital, and Washington, D.C., after half a century of being bitter foes, with the Cuban delegation to be headed by Vidal Ferreiro, and the US delegation to be led by Roberta Jacobson, United States Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs and the top American diplomat for Latin America. Jacobson didn't participate in the immigration discussion. She is also the first assistant secretary of State to visit Cuba in nearly four decades.