U.S.-Cuba migration talks set to resume

HAVANA, Cuba (CNN) - Talks on migration between the United States and Cuba will resume Tuesday in New York, the U.S. State Department said in a statement released here.

The talks were suspended in 2003, during the administration of former President George W. Bush. The Obama administration offered to renew discussions in May.

The talks on Tuesday follow the easing of family travel and financial restrictions between the United States and Cuba.

The United States and Cuba agreed to regulate travel between the two nations in agreements from 1994 and 1995 that are collectively known as the "Migration Accords." They seek to prevent unsafe departures from Cuba.

The United States suspended the accords in 2003 after accusing Cuba of denying some Cubans permission to travel to the United States and declining to let the United States open a new avenue of legal migration for Cubans who want to migrate to the United States, the State Department said.

The United States also said Cuba would not provide a deep-water port for the U.S. Coast Guard to return Cubans who were caught at sea trying to travel to the United States. And it said Cuba wouldn't let American officials into Cuba to ensure that Cubans who were caught trying to go to America did not face reprisals back home.

Cuba also angered the United States by declining to re-admit Cubans who were deemed ineligible to enter the United States for "criminal, security or other grounds," the State Department said.