TODAY the United Nations general assembly will once again vote on Cuba’s annual resolution calling for an end to the US blockade.

Cuba’s resolution, Necessity of ending the economic, commercial and financial embargo imposed by the United States of America against Cuba, has been presented annually to the UN body since 1992 and overwhelmingly passed each year.

In 2017, 191 countries, including Britain, voted in favour of the Cuban resolution, with only the US and Israel voting against. A similar result is expected this year.

The Cuba Solidarity Campaign (CSC) has once again written to the British government urging it to continue to vote in support of ending the blockade which not only harms the people of Cuba but also impacts on our own country.

In advance of the vote, Cuba has published its report that summarises the blockade’s impact, where it states that the nearly six-decade-old blockade has cost the Cuban economy over a staggering $933 billion.

The report outlines in detail the blockade’s brutal impact on health, education, food, sport, culture and development over the last year.

There are hundreds of examples, including cases where Cuba has been unable to obtain crucial aircraft safety components, chemotherapy drugs for malignant brain tumours and medical equipment that can help diagnose cancers.

The extraterritorial impact around the world is also analysed, including the case of the Open University (OU) which banned Cuban students from applying to study there before a huge campaign by CSC, trade unions, parliamentarians and supporters forced the OU to reverse its discriminatory policy last year.

The report also includes elements of the US policy’s impact on special needs schools provisions, specifically the difficulty in purchasing Braille machines that are manufactured and sold in the US.

CSC and the National Education Union (NUT section), have worked together to beat the blockade by sending dozens of Braille machines to schools across the island over the two years. This week, the NEU/NUT third annual October half-term delegation of teachers to Cuba has taken over eight more Braille machines with them to support children’s learning at the Abel Santamaria School for visually impaired children.

The banking problem faced by the Cuban embassy in London over the last 12 months is also included in the report, with HSBC, Barclays and NatWest all temporarily freezing the embassy’s accounts in 2017.

CSC has also felt the impact of the blockade first-hand, when the Co-operative Bank unilaterally closed our account in 2015, citing fear of US fines enforced by the Office of foreign Asset Control (OFAC).

British and overseas banks have paid huge multimillion-pound OFAC fines due to blockade legislation in previous years. It is incredible that 49 international companies paid fines totalling over $14 billion during the eight years of Barack Obama’s presidency alone.

This means that British companies are being fined by the US for a blockade policy that is opposed by the British government. The extraterritorial tentacles of the US blockade policies are far-reaching and an affront to British sovereignty.

For example, a British citizen wishing to visit Cuba may search for a flight on Virgin Atlantic’s website.