Forty Cubans Get Residence in Curacao

HAVANA TIMES – Curacao granted residence to 40 Cubans who were in legal limbo on the Caribbean island for several years, reported Café Fuerte on Wednesday.

“After a long struggle the Minister of Justice received us in his office and after listening made the decision to bestow the permit based on humanitarian and practical reasons,” said Yunior Ramírez, who lives in Curacao since seven years ago.

The laws of the Dutch territory to apply for residence state that the applicant must be outside the country, but the immigrants could not return to Cuba. They had been in Curacao without the right to work and other services.

The Cubans have been in Curacao for between three and eight years, and since 2009 they began to organize, appealing to the Dutch authorities and the United Nations.