2024-02-14 09:57:45
Photo: David Peinado Romero | Shutterstock
Text: Hugo León
Although 2023 marked a record in Mexico for the number of migrant arrivals en route to the US, Cuba was not among the three main emitters of irregular migrants, at least until November of that year, according to the statistics portal Statist.
According to what was published this Friday by the aforementioned platform, between January and November 2023, the irregular entry of only 24,049 Cubans was reported who were presented or channeled to the immigration authorities and 773 were returned.
The figure places the Caribbean country in sixth place among nations of origin, very far from Venezuela, the main emitter with more than 194 thousand migrants: Honduras with just over 106 thousand; Guatemala with 72,410, Ecuador with more than 50,000 and Haiti with nearly 42,000.
According to the Ministry of the Interior of Mexico, approximately 686 thousand people in an irregular immigration situation presented themselves to the Mexican authorities when entering the country between January and November 2023.
“State repression, violence, organized crime and economic problems are the main reasons why these people decide to leave their countries of origin,†the source points out.
The figures provided by Statista contrast with reports from various entities such as the US Customs and Border Protection Office (CBP), which in September 2023 estimated that 25,748 Cubans managed to enter US territory. and the vast majority did so with the CBP one appointment, according to official statistics. The majority of Cubans would then be using the Aztec country as a bridge but without the participation of any kind from the authorities.
On the other hand, the Customs Office estimates that in the last two fiscal years more than 450 thousand Cubans have emigrated to the United States, and that in fiscal year 2023, ended in September, more of 200 thousand encounters with Cubans on the borders of the northern nation.
Meanwhile, in January 2023 alone, almost 12 thousand Cubans crossed the border between Mexico and the United States, according to official CBP data, and a few months later, in October, it was reported that just over 18 thousand Cubans They arrived in the US through border points.
The migration crisis, which is now approaching its fourth year, has left hundreds of thousands of Cubans traveling abroad with the United States as their main destination, but also to Europe and several nations in Central America and America. rich from the South.
The annual numbers exceed those of the rafter crises or any other previous migratory period before or after the revolution’s rise to power in 1959.
At least 425 thousand Cubans arrived in the USA in two years