WASHINGTON: United States on Tuesday welcomed Cuba's plan to scrap tight restrictions on citizens leaving the communist country, a move that could potentially send a surge of Cubans toward US shores.
"This is consistent with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which provides that everybody ought to have the right to leave any country, including their own, and or to return to their own country, to come in and out," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said of the measures to take effect in January.
"So we are analyzing, obviously, all of the details and any implications it may have for our processing," she said.
Separate from requests for US immigration visas, the United States gives any Cuban who reaches US soil by boat, land or air immediate residency and working rights, something it does not do for citizens of any other country.
Havana's move will put pressure on Washington to allow more Cubans to enter the country legally or face a potentially risky illegal flow of refugees from the cash-strapped Communist-ruled Caribbean island just 90 miles below the US state of Florida.
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