(EFE)
The new group of migrants – seven men, three women and a minor – “had left the country illegally by sea,” the Interior Ministry said.
“With this, there are 51 operations from countries in the area and a total of 2,934 Cuban citizens returned in 2023,” according to official data.
The serious economic crisis that Cuba has been suffering for more than two years has prompted an unprecedented migratory exodus, especially to the US. Only last year, US authorities intercepted more than 313,000 Cubans on the border with Mexico, which represents about 3% of the total population of the Island.
The figure does not include the thousands of Cubans who left for other destinations such as Mexico, Spain or South America.
The Cuban government affirms that it maintains its commitment “with a regular, safe and orderly migration” and insists on “the danger and risk conditions for life that illegal departures from the country by sea represent.”
The new group of migrants – seven men, three women and a minor – “had left the country illegally by sea”
In early 2023, the US implemented a program to welcome 30,000 migrants from Venezuela, Haiti, Cuba and Nicaragua every monthand stop the massive arrival of people from those countries.
In parallel, he announced that he would immediately expel undocumented immigrants from those countries who try to cross the southern border into his territory irregularly to Mexico.
Mexico, for its part, agreed to admit 30,000 migrants a month who are expelled from US territory.
Some 10,000 Cubans have benefited from the parole humanitarian law in force since January, the Undersecretary of the Department of State, Brian Nichols, recently reported.
Meanwhile, it was reported that some 87,390 irregular migrants crossed the insecure Darien jungle, the natural border between Panama and Colombia, during the months of January, February and March 2023, seven times more than in the first quarter of 2022, according to a report. released this Saturday by the National Migration Service (SNM).
The Migration report shows that the total number of migrants that have entered Panama so far this year far exceeds the figure of 13,796 registered in the same period in 2022.
By nationality, among the migrants who have crossed the Darién this year, those from Venezuela predominate, with a total of 30,250 as of March 31, followed by Haiti with 23,640, Ecuador with 14,227, China (3,855), India (2,543), Chile ( 2,499), Colombia (2,230), Brazil (2,072), Afghanistan (926), Cameroon (532), Somalia (444) and Peru (400).
Some 87,390 irregular migrants crossed the Darién jungle during the months of January, February and March 2023
The month of March closed this year with the highest number of migrants, 38,099, while February totaled 24,657 and January 24,634.
The main arrivals of migrants in this month of March were Venezuelans, with 28,816, Haitians (6,896), Ecuador (2,772), India (913), Colombia (1,260), the Dominican Republic (84) and Cuba (220), while that 5,138 arrived from other countries, according to the SNM report.
Of those who crossed the Darién jungle in March, 30,929 were adults and 7,170 minors.
The Panamanian authorities and the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) have warned and expressed concern about the growing number of minors arriving in Panama through the Darién jungle, many accompanied by their families, but also alone.
“We have had the testimony of people who even leave them abandoned in the jungle because they cannot handle them,” said the director of the National Migration Service, Samira Gozaine, who described this as “something very tragic.”
Gozaine urged that it is necessary to “begin to make decisions” in relation to this matter.
“We believe that all countries have to come to an agreement to ensure that we protect the well-being of these children, who through this jungle suffer humiliation,” Gozaine remarked.
Unicef warned in a statement this week that more than 9,700 children and adolescents crossed the Darién jungle between January and February 2023, a record number seven times higher than those registered in the same period of the previous year.
Unicef warned that more than 9,700 children and adolescents crossed the Darién jungle between January and February 2023
This figure, according to Unicef, “is the highest that has been registered in a period of two months since these records were kept” and indicates that in the same period of the previous year less than 1,400 were recorded by the Panamanian authorities.
In addition, UNICEF warned that the number of unaccompanied or separated minors continues to grow and, based on the first two months of 2023, estimates that “an average of 5 children per day arrive alone in Panama or at least 200” in what so far this year, while in 2022 in the same period “less than 40” were registered
Unicef considers that separated or unaccompanied children are “particularly vulnerable to violence, abuse and exploitation”.
Panama is the entrance to Central America from the south of the American continent and serves as a passage for thousands of irregular migrants from countries around the world who travel by land to the United States.
The growing trend of this migratory flow has led to an estimate of around 400,000 people who will cross the Darien jungle this year on their journey north, almost double the more than 248,000 who did in 2022.
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