Association of Cubans Residents in Ireland 

A letter to Irish MEPs

Dear Irish MEPs,

Those who subscribe to this letter are Cuban citizens resident in Ireland, most of us have mixed families constituted in this beautiful country, many of us have acquired dual citizenship as well as our children, and we also feel Irish citizens, European citizens, but of course we cannot and do not want to forget our origins and the fate of the Cuban people.

Just like the millions of Irish migrants and their descendants have not forgotten their origins. 

This also brings us together belonging to two islands separated by the same sea of struggles and hopes.

We appeal to you in your dual status as Members and as Irish citizens, we and our family also vote for you.

The resurgence of the trade and financial economic embargo imposed by the US government against the Cuban people for more than 60 years is a true massive, flagrant and systematic violation of human rights against a whole people, including us immigrants, and which it commits in plain view of the European Union.

We know the traditional position of the EU member States against the blockade policy and their systematic support for the resolution that has overwhelmingly approved the UNGA demanding its end on 28 occasions.

That moral support is not enough.

We call for greater intervention by the institutions of the European Union, including the Parliament, to use all their influence and to persuade the administration of President Joe Biden and the American Congressmen to embark on the course of normalizing relations with Cuba, including the removal of the blockade, which causes so many hardships to our families regardless of the ideology they embrace. 

We call for increased efforts by the authorities of the European Union to prevent the extraterritorial application of sanctions against Cuba within the territory of the Union. We refer to all the banking difficulties, a discrimination experienced against Cuban immigrants in Europe so that we, like any other immigrant, can send remittances to our families. We refer also to the retaliation to which the businesses of European citizens, established in Cuba, may be subjected to, business of our families, among many others known to you.