at least 24 Cuban migrants They were arrested by the authorities Mexico while being “irregularly” brought through that country, the reported on Monday National Institute for Migration (Inami).
“On December 28, 2022, the Inami [del estado de] Tlaxcala and the Secretary of Citizen Security identified on Luis Donaldo Colosio Boulevard, [del] municipality of Huamantla, to 30 people who were traveling in two vans”, disclosed the institution on his Twitter.
According to Inami, the migrants “have not proven their regular stay in the country”. The group consisted of 24 Cubans, two Salvadorans and four Nicaraguans.
Similarly, on December 29, another four Cubans were arrested in Mexico by public security officials while being transported by a suspected human trafficker.
The arrest came after the driver of the vehicle they were traveling in committed a violation on the street in the city of San Isidro Atlautenco, Mexico state. When the authorities checked the documents, they discovered the Cubans. According to the newspaper El Sol de Toluca, the detainees, one woman and three men, could not prove that they regularly stayed in Aztec areas.
“The migrants, one woman and three men, initially argued to security forces that they were originally from Tapachula, Chiapas; However, after the agents requested the identities of all the passengers, they confirmed that they were four citizens of Cuban origin who were allegedly heading to the north of the country,” the press office clarified.
The Cuban, who goes by the name Claricel, commented that they arrived in Mexico in November and that their destination was Monterrey, where they were looking for work.
“He stated that the suspect housed them in an undisclosed property in unsanitary conditions and left them on the highway that night for a truck to later transport them to another destination without knowing their whereabouts.”
In 2022, about 17,487 Cubans applied for asylum in Mexico, a number that exceeds the refugee applications of other citizens from Latin American dictatorships such as Venezuela and Nicaragua.
The number of cases involving Cubans has doubled compared to the previous year. For example, the Mexican Commission for Refugee Assistance (Comar) reported that 8,248 Cuban nationals were asylum seekers in Mexico in 2021. Only Hondurans appear above the number of Cubans, with 29,390 cases.
“By air alone, 98,664 Cubans entered Mexico between January and October, 31,645 more (47 percent) than were registered in all of 2021, according to figures from the Migration Policy Unit,” the Sun of the Center newspaper reported