Mexico repatriated more than 100 migrants to Cuba

The Mexican government repatriated 107 migrants from the island to Cuba, including the remains of three citizens who lost their lives in an accident in the state of Veracruz on March 15.

This new group of returnees includes 29 women, 74 men and one girl. With them, there are already 784 Cubans returned from Mexico so far this year through 11 return operations by air.

This time, the flight brought to Havana's José Martí airport the remains of a 37-year-old woman, her 12-year-old daughter and a 19-year-old boy who lost their lives in a traffic accident in the state of Veracruz on March 15.

This year 1,370 Cuban irregular migrants have returned to the island in 30 operations carried out from other countries, according to data released by state media.

The Cuban government insists on advocating for a “legal, orderly and safe” migration.

In recent months, the flow of undocumented migrants from the island who seek to reach the United States using the sea as routes or following different routes through Central America has grown significantly.

Last Thursday, the Caribbean island's government described US policies towards Cuban migrants as “cynical, destabilizing and abusive”, as “cynical, destabilizing and abusive”, which it believes “largely explain” the island's “irregular migration” to the North American country.

Ernesto Soberón, Director General of Consular Affairs and Cubans Resident Abroad of the Island Foreign Ministry, pointed to Washington's “unilateral” non-compliance with bilateral agreements on the subject and the Cuban Adjustment Act in force since 1966 as the main causes of migration.

Analysts consider that the main reason for emigration is the serious economic crisis that the Caribbean country is going through.

The combination of the pandemic, the tightening of the sanctions of the economic embargo imposed by the US on Cuba, and errors in macroeconomic management have generated shortages of commodities, shortages, partial dollarization of the economy and high inflation.

According to the records of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Office (CBP), in the last five months 47,331 Cubans entered the country irregularly, after the figure reached 16,557 in February.

The region has experienced a large migration wave since 2018, when tens of thousands of people left by caravan from Central America to the United States, in a northward flow that, despite attempts to control the problem, has not stopped.

However, the same U.S. Customs and Border Protection Office has detected more than 1.7 million undocumented immigrants at the border with Mexico in fiscal year 2021, which ended on September 30.

According to the Ministry of the Interior of the government of Mexico, it has deported more than 114,000 foreigners in 2021

In addition, the Mexican Commission for Refugee Aid (Comar) has reported that it received a record 131,448 refugee applications in 2021. Of these petitioners, more than 51,000 are Haitians.

With information from EFE

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