Cuba: Checks and balances to protect against government employees taking bribes or giving favours for issuing exit visas to persons who have been deemed unreliable and/or been refused permission to travel; whether records are kept of exit visas that would be accessible when a person failed to return on time; whether the issuer of the exit visa could be identified by a paper trail (2000-2002)
| Publisher | Canada: Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada |
| Author | Research Directorate, Immigration and Refugee Board, Canada |
| Publication Date | 24 January 2003 |
| Citation / Document Symbol | CUB40045.E |
| Reference | 2 |
| Cite as | Canada: Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Cuba: Checks and balances to protect against government employees taking bribes or giving favours for issuing exit visas to persons who have been deemed unreliable and/or been refused permission to travel; whether records are kept of exit visas that would be accessible when a person failed to return on time; whether the issuer of the exit visa could be identified by a paper trail (2000-2002), 24 January 2003, CUB40045.E, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/3f7d4d8823.html [accessed 16 October 2022] |
| Disclaimer | This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. |
Information about checks and balances to protect against government employees taking bribes or giving favours for issuing exit visas to persons who have been deemed unreliable and/or been refused permission to travel could not be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate. However, a May 2001 article reported that the Cuban government had set up a new Ministry in order to "root out" corruption and improve the country's economic efficiency (BBC 4 May 2001).
As part of a six-year campaign to decrease corruption and black market activity, the Ministry for Auditing and Control aims to create a transparent, honest and disciplined approach to the administration of state resources (BBC 4 May 2001). Other efforts in combating corruption include new laws against white-collar crime, measures to improve accounting procedures and the establishment of a "strict" code of ethics for officials (ibid.).
Information about whether records are kept of exit visas that would be accessible when a person failed to return on time or whether the issuer of the exit visa could be identified by a paper trail could not be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate. However, please consult the attached excerpt from a December 2002 report by Reporters sans frontieres on Cuba, which describes the system of visas and exit permits for Cubans as well as the problems faced by independent journalists.
For more information about exit visas and permits please see CUB32543.E of 1 October 1999, CUB38027.E of 18 December 2001 and CUB38022.E of 5 February 2002.
This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum. Please find below the list of additional sources consulted in researching this Information Request.
Reference
BBC News. 4 May 2001. "Cuba's Anti-Corruption Ministry." Additional Sources Consulted
IRB databases
World News Connection (WNC)
Internet sites:
Amnesty International (AI)
Comite Cubano Pro Derechos Humano
Cuba Source
Cuban Canadian Foundation
CubaNet News
Freedom House
Human Rights Watch (HRW)
Transparency International (TI)
UNHCR
Search engine:
Google
Electronic Attachment
Reporters sans frontieres. 17 December 2002. Christian Lionet. "Where News Is the Exclusive Reserve of the State: The Daily Crackdown on the Independent Press." Blackmail as the point of departure Under the various methods of "harassment," it is also worth mentioning Cuba's "visa policy." Having exhausted all of their patience with this incessant abuse, a total of 56 journalists have elected to go into exile since 1995. And nearly a dozen others are now preparing to seek asylum elsewhere. But in order to leave the country, every Cuban citizen must first obtain the destination country's visa and then an exit permit ("white card," or carta blanca) from the Immigration Department of the Ministry of the Interior, as well as a permit to re-enter Cuban territory in case the person concerned should wish to return at the end of his trip. Cost is the first hurdle : the Cuban passport and these permits cost a total of several hundred dollars, excluding the expense of the host country visa. In addition, the granting of exit and re-entry permits is left to the authorities' arbitrary discretion. The Cuban government uses this procedure to play "cat and mouse" with independent journalists who wish to definitively emigrate or to travel abroad. Consequently, after having obtained an emigration visa from the United States, they are denied permission to leave Cuba. The parties concerned eventually obtain this permit but the long wait imposed upon them is tantamount to psychological harassment. Even when this is not the case, applicants usually automatically lose their jobs as soon as they are issued emigration visas. Their lodging can be requisitioned, and meanwhile they are living in Cuba subject to a "no-rights" status that prohibits them from carrying on virtually any legal activity. Above all, applicants are destabilised in terms of their personal relations, having become a "persona non grata" within their own social circles. Even their friends are tempted to mistrust them, inevitably suspecting them of having given in to some form of blackmail by authorities in order to obtain the desired permit. Several independent journalists now find themselves in this situation-including Milagros Beatón Betancourt, of Agencia de Prensa Libre Oriental (APLO), José Luís García Paneque of the Libertad news agency, Jorge Dante Abad Herrera of APLO, and Jorge Oliveira Castillo and Dorka de Céspedes, who are, respectively, the director and reporter of the Havana Press agency. However, rumour has it that Manuel Vázquez Portal will be leaving Grupo de Trabajo Decoro in the very near future. After a two-year wait, he has just obtained his permit to leave Cuba. Normando Hernández González, director of the Colegio de Periodistas Independientes de Camagüey (CPIC) agency is said to be in the same situation. Edel José García Diaz, of the Centro Norte Press (CNP) agency, on the other hand, has supposedly been promised that he will get his permit in January 2003. In yet another form of harassment, other reporters who merely want to travel are allowed to leave the country but are denied permission to return because their passports are stamped with the following notation : "permission granted for a final departure and for a definitive period." Leaving one's country under conditions like these would thus be tantamount to sentencing oneself to remain in exile. Raúl Rivero (photo) is used to this subtle invitation to a permanent departure, which has been offered to him each time that he has been invited to accept one of the many prizes that he has won abroad in recognition of his literary work or his contributions as an independent journalist. On 28 October, Cuban authorities once again refused to grant him a visa to travel to Mexico, where he had been invited by a literary review to present his latest collection of poems.
