Cuban family in a desperate situation in Russia: "We urgently need financial help"

The family is requesting economic and immigration assistance.


A Cuban family that emigrated to Russia three years ago is in a desperate situation and has made an emotional appeal to the international community for help.

In a video sent to CiberCuba that has begun to circulate on social media, the family is asking everyone who can to provide support to help them survive amidst the complex difficulties they face, without papers, sick, and with low income.

"My family and I are Cuban. Three years ago, we sold our house and our belongings in Cuba and emigrated to Russia due to the very difficult conditions in our country," says Marilín, the mother of the family.

It explains that life in Russia has also been difficult: "Here in Russia, we have also had a hard time, as we have not been able to learn the Russian language, they do not give us documents that allow us to settle, only two family members can work sometimes, risking being detained by the police to take away the little money we have or to deport us."

The situation is particularly grave due to health problems within the family. "We haven't received medical attention for more than 3 years, which we need. Additionally, a son has suffered from 2 chronic illnesses for about 20 years, which require ongoing medical care, and that can't happen here," comments Marilín.

He said that it is very difficult for them to pay rent, medications, and necessary food with such restrictions.

"Please, we urgently need financial help, and if possible, could you find out if there are any organizations or people who can get us out of Russia to another country that is not Cuba, due to the sad and difficult situation in my country," said the woman.

In the last three years, thousands of Cubans have left the island and sought asylum in various countries, including Russia, where the difficult conditions for migrants put them in risky situations.

Requests for help from migrants from the island are frequent on social media.

Last year, a documentary that highlighted the critical situation of several young people from the Caribbean nation in Russia in the context of this country's invasion of Ukraine was censored by the Cuban regime.

"We know that 'Calls from Moscow' has been censored for some uncomfortable phrases that point to the collapse and lack of morality of a government that covertly supports Putin's invasion of Ukraine, which has led to the ruin of an entire country and caused the largest exodus in the history of Cuba –more than 500,000 people in a year and a half, equivalent to 5 percent of its population–, leaving its youth scattered across half the world or, as some of the film's participants say, they prefer to be in minus 20 degrees, illegal and in the most homophobic country in Europe, rather than returning to Cuba," said filmmaker Luis Alejandro Yero, director of the censored documentary.

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