Havana (AFP) – The United States recorded about 153,600 illegal entries of Cubans into its territory during 2023, the US Customs and Border Protection office published on Saturday.
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These irregular entries of Cubans into the United States were added to the 67,000 islanders who traveled directly to US airports, and who are covered by the program known as parole, which was implemented by the Joe Biden administration in 2023 to facilitate “orderly, legal and safe” migration. Citizens of Cuba, as well as Haiti, Venezuela and Nicaragua.
Last year's global figures published on Saturday show that the mass exodus of Cubans, which accelerated in early 2022, did not stop in 2023. The United States recorded the irregular entry of 313,000 Cubans in 2022.
The wave of migration over the past two years is unprecedented since the arrival of the revolutionary government headed by Fidel Castro (1926-2016) in 1959.
This mass migration was preceded only by the Mariel Migration, in the 1980s, when 130,000 Cubans left, followed by the “rafter” migration with 35,000 Cubans in 1994. At the beginning of the revolution, between 1960 and 1963, about 300,000 fled for political reasons. .
The departure of the Cubans comes in the midst of the deep economic crisis facing the island, which is the worst in three decades.
Many of them travel to Nicaragua, which has exempted them from the visa requirement since November 2021, and from there they begin a dangerous journey overland to the US border.
This strong influx of Cubans has led to an unusual movement of sub-charter flights to Managua in 2023, a phenomenon that prompted Washington to impose sanctions on these airlines in November.
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