Reading Room Document

Cuban Obligation to Accept Returning Nationals

Under customary international law, one state has a duty to another state to accept any of its own nationals who have been expelled from the other state. This duty between states to accept returning nationals is reinforced by a number of international instruments under which individuals have a right to return to their own country. Cuba's obligation to accept its returning nationals is intensified by evidence that it violated international law in expelling them in the first place. The OLC does not provide release dates for its opinions, so the release date listed is the date on which the opinion was authored. The original opinion is available at www.justice.gov/file/24516/download.

June 6, 1980