There were also seven injuries, including two children aged three and eight.
MIAMI, United States. – Two Cuban citizens died and about seven were injured – among them two children aged three and eight – after the overturning of a car transporting a group of migrants from the Island on the BR-401 highway, in the border municipality of Bonfim, north of the Brazilian state of Roraima, reported this Tuesday the Federal Road Police (PRF).
The accident occurred last Monday, December 15, during a chase that began when the driver tried to evade a traffic stop. the PRF itself.
The entity reported in an official statement that the vehicle – a GM/Prisma – had 10 occupants (nine Cuban migrants and a Brazilian driver), and that, upon noticing the police presence, the driver “turned around and fled at high speed” along the BR-401 in the direction of Bonfim. The agency added that, after “a series of dangerous maneuvers,” the driver entered a dirt road and lost control of the car, which ended up overturning.
Two deaths were reported at the scene. The PRF indicated that the fatal victims were of Cuban nationality and were 16 and 26 years old. At this time, the names of the deceased and the injured have not been officially released.
According to the PRF, seven people suffered serious injuries — including the two children — and another victim suffered minor injuries. The Police stated that they mobilized the emergency services (Samu and Firefighters), as well as experts from the Legal Medical Institute (IML). Folha BV He indicated that some of the occupants were transferred to medical centers in Boa Vista and that others were taken to the Bonfim State Hospital.
The federal authority linked the case to an attempted irregular entry of foreigners into Brazil. According to the statement, one of the occupants declared that “each Cuban would be paying 500 USD to clandestinely enter Brazilian soil.” The PRF specified that it had sent the report of the incident to the Federal Police and detailed that the Brazilian driver would be investigated for promoting the illegal entry of foreigners for economic purposes, in addition to manslaughter and negligent driving injuries.
According to the Brazilian media portalg1the majority of Cuban migrants enter Brazil through the northern region, through border municipalities such as Bonfim (bordering Guyana) and Oiapoque (in Amapá, on the border with French Guiana), as well as through the border with Suriname. Only between January and March of this year, the Ministry of Justice and Public Security (MJSP) of the South American country counted 118 formal entries of Cubans through these routes.
Although many Cubans request refuge in Brazil, not all remain in the country, as he explained to portalg1 researcher João Carlos Jarochinski Silva, coordinator of the International Migration and Refuge Network (REDIMIR), funded by the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq). Some migrants use Brazil as a transit territory on their way to other destinations, such as Uruguay or the United States.
In Brazil, refugee status is granted to those who flee their country of origin for reasons of political, racial, religious persecution, armed conflicts or human rights violations. Returning to your country can put your physical integrity at risk, recalls the MJSP himself.
