In the first 20 days of January, 135 Cubans entered Uruguay through the border of the city of Rivera with Brazil, “many of them with coronaviruses,” according to public the newspaper The country. What collapsed the attention in the contingency center installed in some tents donated by the US embassy because the migrants had to spend the quarantine in this place.
“We had to change the protocol because the system was saturated,” the general director of Promotion and Social Action of the Rivera Municipality, Giovani Conti, told the Uruguayan publication, confirming that 133 of those originally from the island requested refuge.
This city located in the north of Uruguay is a point of reference for migrants. In the first nine days of last year the Departmental Migration Observatory warned of the high number of foreigners requesting refuge, 61 Cubans out of 450 who arrived in all of 2021. The figures increased and in these 20 days of 2022, 538 entered the South American country through various routes, according to figures from the Migration Directorate.
Regarding the Cubans who arrive in Rivera, Conti stressed that because they are people who wanted to leave the island “of their own free will” in search of economic improvements and “there is no political persecution” against them, “they do not fit into the traditional concept of refugee”. Although, the Law No. 18,076 on the right to refuge and refugees, allows them to access this condition.
The figures increased and in these 20 days of 2022, 538 entered the South American country through various routes, according to figures from the Migration Directorate
In addition, he made reference to the expenses that the attention to refugee applicants represents: “The covid test that is applied to migrants, the daily food – breakfast, lunch and dinner – and personal hygiene items”, are assumed by the Intendancy de Rivera for two years, which left them with “a hole in their wallet”. This support, the official specified, will continue “until January 31.”
Conti considered that the Foreign Ministry should have a greater role in this context and reported that he held meetings with representatives of Foreign Relations and with the Ministry of Social Development (Mides) in order to obtain financing for the care provided to refugees and that the Institute Nacional de Alimentacion (Inda) “is in charge of the inputs to prepare the meals.”
The Association of Free Cubans of Uruguay estimates that some 17,000 natives of the island live in the country. And they are the border cities of Chuy and Rivera, the places where these migrants enter and also border crossings that are usually under the control of coyotes. “Taxi drivers and car rental agencies have been found involved in human smuggling operations there. Coyotes charge around $1,200 per person to help pass them to the other country,” made a report from InSight Crime.
Currently, hundreds of Cuban migrants residing in Uruguay, Brazil and Chile, go to Peru and Ecuador until they reach Colombia on their way to the United States. They then cross the feared Darien jungle where several have died in recent months.
The most recent event was the death of the Cuban boy Brayan when he was trying to cross the Darién Gap with his father and sister. the deceased He was the son of Lisandra Bravo Alarcón, the migrant who died last October in the shipwreck that was transporting 30 irregular migrants.
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