A Cuban couple who were deported to the island, after living six years in Malaysia under UN refugee status, arrived in Monterrey, Mexico, after completing the migration journey through Central America.
Richard Sarduy and Yenisber Cárdenas have been in the capital of the state of Nuevo León since last Thursday, after starting their journey in Nicaragua, crossing Honduras and Guatemala, arriving in Tapachula, Chiapas, and continuing through Mexican territory to the north, according to a report from Martí Noticias.
The Cubans resided in Malaysia for six years under the refugee status granted by the United Nations, during which they worked as volunteer teachers in a refugee children's camp.
However, on January 29, the government of the Asian country ordered their deportation to Cuba, after keeping them detained for two months.
The Malaysian government made the decision to deport us. Officials from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) were surprised, but they couldn't do anything," Sarduy told Martí Noticias.
The couple stated that upon arriving at the José Martí International Airport in Havana, the Immigration authorities allowed them to enter the country, but gave them a period of fifteen days to leave, without the right to repatriate.
The regime forced them to stay at relatives' houses, without going out to the street, and kept them under surveillance. That's how they stayed for almost two months, due to the difficulty of acquiring plane tickets to Nicaragua, where they decided to travel in order to begin the journey that would take them to the Mexico-United States border, to enter this country.
An immigration officer, an older lady, told us that it was not convenient to leave our relatives' house or meet with friends. She also advised us to report to the UNHCR office in Havana, and that's what we did," Sarduy recounted.
"We stayed at my dad's house, the family was shocked," Cardenas stated. Almost two months later, they were able to buy tickets to Nicaragua. "It was the only option we had," he said.
During the journey to Mexico, the couple was able to avoid the setbacks and difficulties commonly encountered by migrants, thanks to the refugee documentation from UNHCR.
Upon arriving in Tapachula, they had to make a mandatory stop for several days so that Cárdenas could recover from the injuries he suffered on his feet due to the long walks. They also encountered several checkpoints on the journey to Mexico City, but they finally managed to arrive in Monterrey without any issues.
The ultimate goal of marriage is Matamoros, in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas, bordering Brownsville, Texas, according to what Sarduy told the media.
Both arrived in Mexico in a context of tightening immigration policies, after the Joe Biden administration implemented zero tolerance for foreigners crossing the border illegally, which would prevent them from obtaining political asylum in the U.S.
"If people cross the border illegally, they can be immediately sent back to Mexico because the number arriving exceeds what is established in the presidential proclamation issued in recent days," said immigration lawyer and Miami-based specialist Alejandro Sánchez, interviewed by Martí Noticias.
In the case of Sarduy and Cárdenas, the jurist pointed out, "they could qualify as an exception clause, but they could also be asked if on the way to Mexico they requested additional protection in any of the countries they passed through, and then U.S. agents could activate the prohibition of the right to asylum."
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