MIAMI, United States.- A total of 11,667 Cubans have applied for asylum in Mexico so far this year, which places the island as the second country with the most asylum applications in that country during 2022, only behind Honduras. , as reported by the Mexican Commission for Refugee Aid (Eat).
According to the most recent figures from Comar, during the month of July only 867 Cubans applied for asylum in Mexican territory, one of the lowest numbers in the last three months. During June, 1,097 Cubans requested asylum from the immigration authorities of that country.
The official report explains that, so far this year, of all asylum applications submitted by Cubans, 1,179 cases have been resolved, of which 618 obtained a positive response for 52 percent.
Likewise, the Commission’s report adds that since the end of April, asylum applications in Mexico issued by Cubans have exceeded the total number of applicants for all of 2021, when 8,270 natives of the island asked the AMLO government to be accepted in the country as asylees.
The Cuban migration crisis increased in November 2021 after the Nicaraguan government eliminated the visa requirement for the island’s inhabitants. Since then, the presence of Cubans throughout Central America with the aim of reaching Mexico and then crossing the southern border of the United States has alarmed the region’s immigration authorities.
Last week, the Mexican authorities repatriated 49 Cubans who were in an irregular situation in that country and whose final destination was the United States. With this group, the number of Cubans returned to the island from Mexico now rises to 1,459, according to the Cuban Ministry of the Interior (MININT).
According to COMAR data, people from Cuba have been among the ten nationalities that most request asylum in Mexico since 2017. Since 2018, more than 23,000 Cubans have requested refuge from COMAR.
Local media say that Mexico, the third largest recipient of refugee claims in the world, began to see an increase in refugee claims after former President Enrique Peña Nieto established the Southern Border Program.
It was the year 2019 when more asylum applications were requested by Cubans in Mexico. In 2020 the numbers dropped, as a consequence of the closure of the borders on the island due to the coronavirus pandemic.
However, in 2021 the number of refugee applications from Cubans in Mexico returned to the levels of 2019.
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