MIAMI, United States. — Cuban migrants in Uruguay asked the authorities of that country for help to regularize their immigration status.
In order to air this claim, the nationals of the Caribbean island arrived today at the headquarters of the Presidency, according to what the organization “Cubanos Libres en Uruguay” announced on social networks.
“Together with the Cuban community today in the Presidency, advocating for the regularization of the migratory status of Cuban men and women who decided to seek freedom in Uruguay,” said that group in Twitter.
Prior to the “opening” of the migratory route to the United States via Nicaragua —through which some 220,000 Cubans arrived in the northern country between October 2021 and September 2022—, many migrants from the island arrived in Uruguay with the goal of settling there.
Between 2017 and 2019, more than 35,000 Cubans entered the South American nation. In 2017, the entry of 4,577 people was reported, in 2018 they added 12,648 and in 2019 they reached almost 20,000.
Although the COVID-19 pandemic and the closure of borders implied a considerable reduction in the number of Cubans who traveled to Uruguay between 2020 and 2021, the recent figures represent more than half of the 2,886 counted last year.
Figures from the National Directorate of Migrations (DNM) of Uruguay indicate that a total of 1,454 Cubans they entered Uruguay in just the first two months of 2022.
In August of that same year, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) opened its first office in that country to follow up on the thousands of requests for shelter from Cuban migrants.
