Almost 11,000 Cubans Have Accessed Mexican Migration Offices Since January

Cuba ranked fifth out of 169 countries registered, after Venezuela, Honduras, Colombia and the United States. (INM)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Lorey Saman, Mexico, 24 June 2021 — Between January of this year and to date in June, a total of 10,995 Cubans have gone to the offices of the National Institute of Migration (INM) of Mexico to process the paperwork for their legal stay in the country or to renew their residency.

Cuba ranked fifth among the 169 registered countries, after Venezuela (17,330), Honduras (13,555), Colombia (13,101) and the United States (11,314), the INM said in a statement . Most of the procedures were processed in Mexico City, Chiapas, Quintana Roo, Nuevo León, Jalisco and Baja California.

The figures have been provided thanks to the New Migration Procedures Management Model, “which contemplates the use of biometric data” and other technological changes that have reduced “from 20 days to a period of no more than 24 hours the resolution of 19 of the main immigration procedures of the institution.”

Among the main requests made by migrants, in addition to renewal of the resident card, are the regularization of the migratory situation for humanitarian reasons, issuance of migratory documents, changes from temporary to permanent resident status and notification of change of domicile.

In just the first five months of this year, according to the most recent data from the National Refugee Commission (Comar), 3,769 Cubans requested asylum in the country. Although not all those who initiate this process go to an INM office to apply for a visa for humanitarian reasons, and at least 1,444 nationals of the Island were recognized as refugees in that period.

Many Cubans who arrive in the city of Tapachula, on the southern Mexican border, request refuge at the Comar office. When they obtain the first documents which they must bring to the Migration offices to manage their humanitarian visa, they prefer to continue traveling to the north of the country to cross to US soil and request asylum.

In the last six months of last year, when the new INM procedure model began to be implemented, the 8,258 Cubans who went to the offices were only surpassed by 14,344 beneficiaries from Venezuela and 9,472 from Colombia.

This Wednesday, Mexico deported 89 Cubans (20 women and 69 men) to the island, who “did not prove their regular” status in the country, the INM reported. The migrants were detained in the states of Chiapas, Coahuila, Nuevo León, Oaxaca, Tabasco, Tamaulipas and Yucatán.

The deportation of the new group of Cubans coincides with a virtual meeting on Migratory and Consular Affairs held between the two countries on June 17, where they reviewed “cooperation actions to combat human trafficking and illegal trafficking of travelers,” according to a communication from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Island.

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