Washington D.C., 13 February 2023 – During 2022, more that 270,000 Cubans arrived by land and sea to the United States, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the Coast Guard.[1] Around seventy Cuban migrants died or disappeared in the Caribbean, a large majority due to poor weather conditions that made navigation difficult and the use of boats that were not apt for navigating in the high sea, according to the Missing Migrants Project of the International Organization for Migration (IOM).[2]

The statistics of people who left the island in 2022 surpassed previous migratory waves: the first which occurred after the triumph of the Castro Revolution between 1959 and 1962, in which 250,000 citizens were expatriated; the departure that began in 1980 at the port of Mariel, where 125,000 Cubans left the island; and the Balsero crisis in 1994, in which more than 30,000 people abandoned the country.[3]

Most Cubans have left the island due to the serious economic crisis, the shortages of goods and medicine, unemployment, and the difficult political and social situation, which has worsened since the historic citizens protests in July 2021, also known as 11J. However, there also exists a group of Cubans who migrated because they were exiled from the island. Activists, human rights defenders, independent journalists, artists, jurists, and critics of the government have been forced to abandon the island in the last several years,[4] in exchange for not being prosecuted and imprisoned, especially since the new Criminal Code, which intensifies the criminalization of individuals and organizations that fight for the recognition of human rights in the country, entered into effect in December.[5]

These exiled Cubans, who are not able to return to Cuba, have found themselves in the United States and other countries with the purpose of beginning a life where they are free and can live without fear.

With Psychological Attention in Argentina

The writer and independent journalist, María Matienzo; and her partner, the activist Kirenia Núñez, arrived in Buenos Aires, Argentina on the 22^nd of August of last year. There they were settled after fleeing the repression and constant threats they suffered due to their denunciations against the Cuban government. “We were detained on many occasions in Havana, and if we group all of the time in detention, we would have almost a year of deprivation of liberty,” says Matienzo, who remains in the country thanks to the support of the Centro para la Apertura y el Desarrollo de América Latina (CADAL), an organization that also has helped her receive psychological attention.

“I have not succeeded in enjoying (Buenos Aires) like I have wanted. I have spent much time recuperating, and it is not as easy as people think. In fact, in the first days when I arrived here there were many police in the street, that hardly looked at us. But still we were not able to shake the nervous feelings,” admitted María.

Waiting for Political Asylum in Germany

The story of María and Kirenia is very similar to the activist Jancel Moreno and his partner Wilfredo Carmenate, who had to leave the island on the 13^th of September of 2022. With only the backpacks on their backs they arrived in Frankfurt, Germany, where they have requested political asylum and have had to demonstrate that the Cuban government threatened Jancel with jail time, and stopped supplying Wilfredo with the medications he takes to treat osteoarthritis of the hip, which has afflicted him for several years.

Between July and September last year, Jancel was threatened approximately three times by State Security. They told him that if he did not publicly renounce activism and leave Cuba, he would be accused of crimes of “engaging in mercenary activity, inciting criminality, usurpation of functions, and enemy propaganda.” All of this occurred while they also threatened his partner with the crime of “illicit economic activity.”

Jancel and Wilfredo remain in a camp for migrants in the city of Zirndorf. They are waiting on the German government to give them a response to the political asylum request, that should be known after a year; meanwhile, they learn the language of the European country and wait to be transferred to another zone in Germany.

Surviving in the United States

The independent journalists Orelvys Cabrera and his partner Yunior Pino were also forced to abandon the island. “On the 19^th of December 2021, I left Cuba because I was threatened since they told me I would be accused of a series of crimes that would result in thirty years of jail time. They gave me an ultimatum: if you are here after the 5^th of January 2022, you will be arrested. My partner and I then sold everything, and we went to Moscow,” says Orelvys.

They stayed in the Russian capital for three months, until Orelvys was threatened again, this time for denouncing the violations of human rights suffered by Cuban migrants in the Eurasian country. From there they went to Egypt, where an international organization informed them that the Parliament of the Czech Republic had granted them political asylum, so they traveled there. But after a time, they noted it was very difficult to learn Czech (the official language of the country), and therefore find a job; thus, they decided to leave for Mexico, and from there they crossed the border with the United States and surrendered to U.S. authorities on the 28^th of March last year.

Orelvys and his partner found themselves in Miami protected by form I-220A, that prevented deportation or being taken to prison. Both are waiting for a migration judge to grant them political asylum.

A Beneficiary of the Cuban Adjustment Act

The art historian Claudia Genlui is another activist that was forced into exile. She left Cuba on the 1^st of November 2021, four months after the peaceful protests of 11J. She arrived in Miami, United States, after constant besiegement by State Security, who surveilled and threatened her for her denouncements of human rights violations experienced on the island, and for being a member of the Movimiento San Isidro, a collective of Cuban artists founded by her partner, performance artist and activist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, who has been in prison for five years for demanding the fulfilment of human rights.

“Thinking of Cuba is an open wound that is always right there. I still have not succeeded in stepping up to the plate on that, it is extremely painful for me, above all because I never wanted to leave… I miss everything about Cuba,” says Genlui, who also assured that it was difficult to leave Luis Manuel, and her family in general, especially her grandmother, a woman of more that 80 years who lived with her before her departure.

Claudia is a beneficiary of the Cuban Adjustment Act, a federal law that permits her to request U.S. residency after being in the country for a year and a day. She is waiting on a response from the government, while also studying English.

The stories of María, Kirenia, Jancel, Wilfredo, Orelvys, Junior, and Claudia represent hundreds of activists, human rights defenders, independent journalists, and critics of the Cuban government who have been forced to flee Cuba. They have been forced to leave their families for countries with different languages, cultures, and traditions.

From the International Institute on Race, Equality and Human Rights we demand that the Cuban State cease the use of forced exile as a strategy of repression, and that it recognize and guarantee the human rights of every person that resides in its territory. We reiterate our call to the government of the island to comply with the dispositions of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and we urge the international community to guarantee the protection of Cuban migrants, independent of their migratory status.

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[1] Cuba: 4 razones que explican el histórico éxodo desde la isla a EE.UU. en 2022. Enero 3 de 2023. Disponible: https://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias-america-latina-64104551

[2] En 2022, cifra récord de migrantes desaparecidos en el Caribe. Enero 24 de 2023. Disponible: https://www.iom.int/es/news/en-2022-cifra-record-de-migrantes-desaparecidos-en-el-caribe

[3] Cuba: 4 razones que explican el histórico éxodo desde la isla a EE.UU. en 2022. Enero 3 de 2023. Disponible: https://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias-america-latina-64104551

[4] Cuba: Crisis migratoria y prácticas represivas en el contexto de la movilidad humana. Octubre 27 de 2022. Disponible: http://oldrace.wp/es/cuba-es/cuba-crisis-migratoria-y-practicas-represivas-en-el-contexto-de-la-movilidad-humana/

[5] Raza e Igualdad alerta sobre nuevo Código Penal que recrudece la criminalización del ejercicio de derechos fundamentales. Junio 14 de 2022. Disponible: http://oldrace.wp/es/cuba-es/raza-e-igualdad-alerta-sobre-nuevo-codigo-penal-que-recrudece-la-criminalizacion-del-ejercicio-de-derechos-fundamentales/