MADRID, Spain.- International Migrants Day is celebrated on December 18, and Cuba commemorates it with one of the worst migration crises in its history. This day was proclaimed by the General Assembly of the United Nations in the year 2000 due to the increase in migratory flows worldwide.
According to data from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), an estimated 281 million people lived in a country other than their native country in 2020. A large part of these people emigrated fleeing war conflicts or catastrophes.
In Cuba, the main causes that lead Cubans to emigrate are the economic crisis, politics and repression.
Cubans escape from Cuba by sea in precarious boats to try to reach the coasts of the United States —despite the fact that most of the time they are deported to the Island—; or legally traveling to countries like Nicaragua to undertake the Central American route, also looking for the northern country. In both cases risking his life.
Since October 1, 2022, the beginning of the fiscal year, to date, the crews of the United States Coast Guard (USCG) have intercepted more than 3,000 Cubans.
In this short period, the figure represents more than half of the rafters detained during the past fiscal year, in which the USCG detained 6,182 Cuban migrants.
According to recent data from the US Customs and Border Protection Office, Cuba has reached second place, only after Mexico, in statistics on irregular migratory flows.
Nearly 29,000 Cubans arrived at the US border last October, which represents 12.51 percent of the total number of migrants, thus displacing, for example, Haitians who, with nearly 7,000 registered, occupy the tenth place of the table, and they are 2.91 percent of migrants.
Despite this situation, the Cuban dictatorship not only continues without making decisions that modify the economic and political panorama that leads Cubans to emigrate, but also attacks them, as happened on October 29, in Honda Baywhen the Border Guard Troops rammed a boat where 23 people were traveling and caused the death of seven of them.
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