More than a thousand Cubans have applied for political asylum in Spain in the first eight months of this year, according to official data from the Ministry of the Interior provided to DIARIO DE CUBA.
Specifically, 1,104 Cuban citizens sought refuge from Spanish authorities from January to August 2024.
The Caribbean island ranks 12th on the list of countries with applicants. Venezuela ranks first (42,044), followed by Colombia (28,033) and Peru (7,272). Citizens of those countries are exempt from the visa requirement by the European Union.
Until August 31, Spanish authorities granted political asylum to only 20 Cubans, but this data corresponds to cases submitted in previous years. They also rejected 368 applications and archived another 292.
Cuban asylum seekers revealed to DIARIO DE CUBA that the legal mechanism is a "chaos." To obtain appointments, they must be purchased on the black market, and the process takes three years or more.
The asylum requests from Cubans in Spain are increasing, but very few achieve their goal.
In the first half of the year, applications increased by more than half compared to the previous year; however, very few were resolved favorably for the individual.
A report from the Spanish Commission for Refugee Aid (CEAR) revealed that in 2023, there were 3,082 applications from Cuban emigrants, compared to 1,392 in 2022, an increase of 54%.
The entity states that despite this growth, only 1,157 applications had been resolved, of which only 30 received refugee status. The other 1,127 did not receive any protection: 777 due to unfavorable resolutions and 350 due to being archived.
"These figures represent a protection rate of 3.7%, one of the lowest recorded," the text warned.
Cubans face more obstacles in obtaining any type of international protection than other emigrants.
The Spanish government claims that they emigrate for economic reasons, without de facto recognizing the Cuban regime as a dictatorship or a country in crisis.
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