The report of the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) indicates that Nicaraguans were the ones who requested the most asylum worldwide in 2021, only surpassed by Afghans after the return of the Taliban to power. More than 111,000 citizens applied for that status last year.
The figure reflected in document it is five times higher than that registered in 2020. According to the organization, these numbers are due to the political and human rights crisis in Nicaragua. The statistics of the United Nations agency show that last year there were 125,600 requests for asylum from Afghans, followed by Nicaraguans, with 111,600 requests.
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“Nicaraguan people fled due to the escalation of the socio-political crisis and political persecution in their country,” highlights the report that analyzes the global trends of forced displacement during the past year that focuses on displacement “as a result of persecution, conflict , violence, human rights violations or events that seriously disturbed public order.
Globally, UNHCR indicates that at the end of 2021 the number of asylum seekers awaiting a resolution was 4.6 million, a higher figure than at the end of 2020 (4.2 million). “This increase highlights the need for states and UNHCR to ensure efficient ways to process asylum claims (…). The backlog of pending cases can create protection problems if asylum seekers have to wait for many years without legal certainty, and rejected applicants have more difficulties to return to their country of origin”, he warned.
The reports mention that Nicaraguans are among the main nationalities that have a greater number of accepted asylum applications in Spain and the United States, two of the main destinations for those who leave the country in search of protecting their physical integrity or those who leave in search for job opportunities.
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Last year, Nicaragua received 2,146 million dollars in remittances. The main sources of origin of the remittances received were the United States, followed by Spain, which two years ago displaced Costa Rica from second place, which is now third.
Remittances from Spain totaled 301.7 million dollars, which meant an increase of 30.2 million dollars, equivalent to 11.1% in year-on-year terms (271.5 million dollars).
