Only three Cubans obtained refugee status in Uruguay during the first six months of this year. In that period, as published this Wednesday by the newspaper Montevideo Portal, the Refugee Commission (Core) of the South American country denied 89 refugee claimsof which 82 were from Cubans, who are the most rejected national group with 85% of the total.
The reason for granting asylum to so few island nationals, sources from the Uruguayan Foreign Ministry allege to the local media, is the argument that the applicants give in their applications: “What they say is that they are economic reasons and economic reasons, when They say it in the interview, they are not reasons that justify a refuge”.
Thus, the Uruguayan authorities ignore not only the scarcity and the permanent crisis to which the island is subjected by an economic system that does not work, but also the political persecution of those who dissent, which increased with the repression of the anti-government demonstrations of 11J of the year past.
According to Core data, since 2019 asylum has been granted to all Venezuelan nationals who have requested it except for two
Venezuelans, however and surprisingly, are accepted in Uruguay almost in their entirety. According to Core data, since 2019 asylum has been granted to all Venezuelan nationals who have requested it except two. From January 1 to May 31, 2022, they were one hundred percent of the applicants, a total of 83.
According to the publication of Montevideo Portal, the Refugee Commission has a high demand for refugee applications that could be around 10,000, and that it cannot cover.
With the Uruguayan law, Right to Refuge and Refugees, which the publication cites, the refugee application and resolution process can take up to four years.
Under international standards, the administrative refugee process must be efficient and adaptable, according to the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), but in practice it involves cumbersome and lengthy paperwork.
In contrast to Uruguay, for example, the Spanish Commission for Refugee Aid accepted only 10.5% of asylum requests in 2021. He adds that this percentage is an increase from 5% the previous year. He also clarifies that for the asylum applications of the previous year, those requests from countries such as Mali, which had been previously rejected, were resolved favorably.
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