On one side of the Rio Grande, dozens of migrants set up an improvised camp from where they wait for a response to the request they made through the CBP One digital platform. Among them was Oilime Esquivel, who has only a few hours after arriving in the US USA after applying for asylum.
“Young people have to get out of the deception that is Cuba,” said this native of Camagüey to the journalist of Radio and Television Marti, Ricardo Quintana“Need forces us… Imagine that in Cuba you can have a family member to help you, but you have nowhere to buy food. There isn’t any,” he laments.
Esquivel left the Island and undertook the journey as thousands have done, on foot through Guyana. The route of this Cuban took him through Brazil, Uruguay, the Darién, the dangerous border between Panama and Colombia, where 45,727 irregular migrants have crossed to North America so far in 2023, according to official Panamanian figures.
“Migration in Cuba is not going to stop, it will always exist,” laments Esquivel from inside his “house,” a blanket, some sheets with nylon and cardboard that are held up with tree branches. “In winter it is terrible. He carries his sacrifice but everything is for the well-being of the family,” he says, because the Island “no longer gives for more.”
“Migration in Cuba will not stop, it will always exist”
Emigrating “is what we can do and now that we are young we can get out of the deception of Cuba,” says Oilime while showing the cans of food that they have given her in the churches: “Thanks to this I am eating.” In bags there are some shoes and clothes. Esquivel says that in Tapachula, there are many Cubans waiting for a permit to reach the southern border of the United States.
Others, like Yudith Mandina, Roberto Montero and their son Roberto Mario They continue to be detained at the Acayucan immigration station, in the Mexican state of Veracruz, despite having parole humanitarian aid from the United States. Two more also with the authorization of the United States and Mexican safe-conduct, Luis Ángel Sánchez and Noelvis La O Pereira, are located in Las Agujas. Luis Ángel’s father, Luciano Sánchez, denounced that they demand 5,000 dollars each for his release.
Meanwhile, Costa Rica has available from this Wednesday the Temporary Special Category for Cubans, Venezuelans and Nicaraguans for those who have the refugee process pending and those who were denied it. With this, people “will be able to carry out any paid work activity on their own account or dependency relationship, as well as being able to leave the country at the time they decide,” highlights the General Directorate of Migration and Immigration of the Central American country.
The agency specified that it will review the criminal and police records of the applicants, as an additional requirement to be able to grant the category.
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