EFE (via 14ymedio), Miami, 6 April 2022 — More than 46,000 Cubans arrived by land in the US in the five months from October 2021 to the end of February 2022, a figure higher than the 35,000 of the 1994 Rafters Crisis — which lasted five months — according to a report published this Tuesday by the newspaper Miami Herald.
The five-month figure exceeds that of the 12 months of 2021, which had already been a record (39,303), according to data from the Customs and Border Protection agency (CBP).
The newspaper, which links the increase in the migratory flow of Cubans to the hardening of economic and social conditions in Cuba and the repression unleashed after the 2021 anti-government protests, indicated that arrivals by sea are also at record levels.
The Coast Guard intercepted 1,067 Cubans in the first five months of fiscal year 2022, while in the same period of the previous fiscal year there were 838.
Most of the Cubans who arrived across the border with Mexico have been admitted to the US, unlike those who arrived by sea, who are mostly deported, says the newspaper.
The Miami Herald mentions that Cuba is in first place in the Misery Index compiled annually by Johns Hopkins University, due to rising inflation, widespread shortages of basic goods and little prospect of recovering from the economic impact of the covid-19 pandemic.
Added to all this is the “general assault on civil liberties” that the Government launched after the protests of July 11, 2021, which led to the arrest of more than 1,400 people, including minors, adds the information.
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