Havana/The United States deported 96 migrants to Cuba this Thursday, three of whom were transferred to investigative bodies for their alleged connection with crimes committed before leaving the Island, the Ministry of the Interior reported in a brief note. The group, made up of 78 men and 18 women, arrived at the José Martí International Airport in Havana on a flight organized under the immigration agreements between the two countries.
The statement did not reveal the identity of the three people investigated nor did it specify what crimes were attributed to them. The institution limited itself to pointing out that they were alleged perpetrators of criminal acts committed before leaving Cuba, the same formula used in previous operations.
With this flight, the number of Cuban migrants returned to the Island during the first six months of 2026 rises to 740, in 25 returns organized from different countries in the region, according to official figures.
The United States has deported 666 Cubans directly to Havana during the year
The data does not correspond exclusively to deportations from the United States. The last flight from that country had arrived on May 21 with 76 migrants, when the Government counted 612 returnees in 18 operations from various territories. Since then, the total has increased by 128 people and seven operations. Of them, 96 correspond to the plane that arrived this Thursday from the United States, while the authorities have not specified the origin or circumstances of the remaining returns.
This Thursday is the sixth direct deportation flight from the United States to Cuba so far in 2026. The first arrived on February 9 with 170 people, after no operation of this type took place during January. Ten days later, another plane transported 116 Cubans. That flight was followed by those on March 19, with 117 deportees; on April 16, with 91; and on May 21, with 76.
Adding the 96 passengers this Thursday, the United States has deported 666 Cubans directly to Havana during the year.
Last February, Havana also accepted the return of several Cubans with criminal records in the United States, something that Washington presented as a change with respect to the regime’s previous practice.
In March, three of the 117 returnees were transferred to investigation bodies. In April the same thing happened with two of the 91 passengers. As now, the Cuban authorities did not offer their names or further information about the proceedings opened against them.
Regular deportation flights from the United States resumed in April 2023, after having been suspended since the end of 2020. Initially, they mainly transported Cubans declared inadmissible after being detained on the border with Mexico, although people who had been living in the United States for years or decades were later incorporated.
Last February, Havana also accepted the return of several Cubans with criminal records in the United States, something that Washington presented as a change with respect to the previous practice of the regime, which for years had refused to receive certain deportees.
