The Honduras National Migration Institute reported on its Twitter account the arrests of 12,516 Cuban migrants so far in 2022, announcing that this is the largest number of illegal migrants currently transiting the country.
Between March 14 and April 6 of this year, out of 10,139 irregular detainees, the report said, 6,975 were from Cuba.
Honduran immigration authorities also reported that on March 12, 30 Cubans were intercepted on a bus in the Olancho department city of Juticalpa in an attempt to curb human trafficking. On the 15th of the same month, another 241 Cubans were arrested along with nine coyotes who served as guides on the trip.
The migration situation, which is considered critical, has prompted groups of civil organizations to call on the government of the Central American country to declare a humanitarian emergency because of the risks involved in crossing certain border areas in the region.
In a recent article, the American newspaper The Washington Post stated that by the end of October more than 155,000 Cubans are expected to have crossed the Mexican border with the United States, far exceeding Mariel’s exodus in 1980.
In March of this year alone, more than 32,000 Cubans crossed the United States’ borders into Mexico, the Post said, although that’s not data released by U.S. border protection agencies.
The serious political, economic and social crisis that Cuba is going through, aggravated by the brutal repression of peaceful demonstrators on July 11th, has fueled the desperation of the majority of the islanders and provoked the urgent need to flee through crossings which, due to their length and the severity of the risks they pose.