US sends official to Cuba for migration talks

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The United States and Cuba were Wednesday holding fresh talks on migration issues, with President Barack Obama's administration sending its highest-ranking envoy yet to the communist-ruled island.

Craig Kelly, the principal deputy assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, traveled to Havana to lead the US side in the talks, the State Department said.

"The discussions will focus on how best to promote safe, legal and orderly migration between Cuba and the United States," it said in a statement.

The Obama administration last year resumed talks on migration with Cuba which had been conducted every two years until they were suspended in 2003 by former president George W. Bush.

Kelly marks the senior-most official to head to Cuba for the talks, although envoys of his rank regularly went to Havana for the dialogue before the suspension.

Another senior US official, Bisa Williams, visited Havana in September last year to discuss another prospect for improving relations -- resuming direct mail between the neighboring countries which has been suspended since 1963.

Obama took office last year with a mission of reaching out to adversaries including Cuba. The United States broke off relations with the communist island in 1961.

The Obama administration has lifted travel and money transfer restrictions on Cuban-Americans with relatives in Cuba, but it has urged Havana to free political prisoners and improve political freedoms.

Cuba's government has a longstanding interest in migration dialogue with the United States as the Caribbean nation is embarrassed by persistent illegal US-bound emigration of its nationals across the shark-infested Florida Straits.