Guatemalan authorities have expelled 27 irregular Cuban migrants in recent days, the Guatemalan Migration Institute (IGM) reported to the Central American country’s media.
According to IGM, Cubans and Venezuelans are the most common nationalities among migrants admitted and deported from Guatemala in 2022, a similar situation to other countries such as Mexico and Honduras, where authorities often report the detection of irregular migrants from Cuba and Venezuela .
Guatemalan newspaper Prensa Libre reported last Thursday that to date the IGM facilities had housed 1,245 migrants detained in unit operations with the National Civil Police, the Interior Ministry and the Guatemalan Army.
Most migrants were intercepted by authorities at bus checkpoints. The IGM reiterated that they will be detained if they do not meet the migration and health requirements of the country the migrants are entering as part of their overland journey to the United States.
“The IGM statistics show that from Wednesday 27 July to this Thursday 28 July (at 7am) 44 people were housed and 72 were expelled. Of these 44 protected persons, 29 were from Venezuela and 15 from Cuba, while of the 72 expelled during this period, 43 were Venezuelans, 27 were Cubans and 2 were Ecuadorians,” Prensa Libre reported.
The Director General of Migration of Guatemala, Stuard Rodríguez, specified that Cubans and Venezuelans are the ones who lead the number of migrants expelled from Guatemalan territory for not complying with immigration regulations, as well as those who during the decision of the immigration authorities have found protection. about their cases and the status granted to them.
374 Cuban migrants passed through the shelters managed by the IGM, followed numerically by 250 Venezuelans, 217 Hondurans, 144 Salvadorans and 62 Nicaraguans.
The high presence of Cuban migrants in the Central American region is a testament to the migratory crisis Cuba has been going through in recent years, stemming from the aggravation of its usual economic crisis due to the COVID-19 pandemic and failed government policies that have plunged the island into its worst inflation and into a situation of serious shortage of food and basic necessities.
Most Cubans are trying to reach the United States either by sea or via its border with Mexico by a land route that begins in Nicaragua, a country that waived visa requirements for Cubans since last November.