2024-07-14 00:28:51
Cubans are among the main nationalities seeking refuge in Mexico in recent years, behind Hondurans and Haitians.
In this regard, the Mexican Commission for Refugee Assistance (Comar) recently announced the number of people who have requested refuge in Mexico between 2019 and June 2024, with Hondurans at the top.
The agency, which is dependent on the Ministry of the Interior of the Mexican Government, indicated that Honduras occupies the first position with 172,596, followed by Haiti with 128,328 requests, Cuba with 68,188, Venezuela with 39,230 and El Salvador with 36,436.
“During the current 2019 Administration, at the end of June 2024, the first 5 nationalities requesting refugee status in Mexico are Honduras, Haiti, Cuba, Venezuela and El Salvador,” said the head of Comar, Andrés Ramírez Silva, in a message on social media.
The current administration of the country, headed by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, began on December 1, 2018, and will end on September 30, although for administrative purposes the count begins precisely with the year 2019.
Meanwhile, Comar said that from January to June 2024, 41,427 people have applied for refugee status, a decrease of 45.5% compared to the same period in 2023, when 76,130 requests were registered, while in the first half of 2022, 58,660 cases were recorded.
Cuban asylum applications by the end of June 2024
In the first half of this year, 8,883 Cubans were registered as requesting asylum in Mexico, compared to 17,441 Hondurans and 3,664 Haitians. They are followed by Salvadorans (3,370), Guatemalans (2,306), Venezuelans (2,272) and Colombians (1,122).
In this regard, Comar reported that in total figures there were 140,831 requests in 2023, 119,083 in 2022 and 129,329 cases registered in 2021, while in the three previous years it reached 40,733 in 2020, 70,120 and 29,410 in 2018.
According to data from Customs and Border Protection (CBP), some 324,000 citizens from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador arrived at the southern border of the United States in 2023, a 29% reduction compared to 2021.
Migration in Mexico has been increasing since October 2018, when caravans with thousands of migrants, mostly Central Americans, began to enter with the aim of crossing the country to reach the United States. The arrival of migrants has continued in recent years despite the pandemic and restrictions imposed by countries in the region.
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Cubans Around the World Editorial Team