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Diaz-Balart Responds to Reports About Possible Deportation of Cuban Asylees in the Bahamas

August 16, 2013

Miami, FL – Rep. Diaz-Balart responds to reports that Cuban refugees in Bahamian custody will be returned to totalitarian Cuba despite Panama's offer to accept some on humanitarian grounds.

"I urge the Bahamian authorities not to forcibly return the Cuban nationals currently in their custody. The Cuban dictatorship is notorious for its brutality against those who try to escape its island prison. If The Bahamas decides to forcibly repatriate these refugees, it will shoulder responsibility for the inevitable abuses that follow.

I would be willing to work with the government of The Bahamas and the U.S. Department of State to find solutions to the migration issues straining Bahamian resources. But, the humane and just approach cannot include the forced return to the very oppression that these refugees risked their lives to escape."