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Cubans have surpassed Venezuelans as the primary nationality seeking asylum in Brazil for the first time in ten years, according to data from the Migration Panel of the Ministry of Justice and Public Security of that country, published on June 8, 2025.
In the first quarter of 2025, 9,467 Cubans applied for asylum in Brazil, compared to 5,794 Venezuelans, representing 52% of the total 18,193 applications received by the country between January and March.
Since 2015, Venezuelans had consistently dominated the statistics of asylum requests in Brazil, driven by the political and economic crisis in their country.
The shift reflects the convergence of two factors: the accelerated collapse of the Cuban economy and the near-total closure of the migration route to the United States under the Trump administration, which reduced irregular encounters of Cubans at the U.S. border by 99%.
Cuba is facing its greatest economic crisis since the 1959 Revolution, marked by chronic blackouts, shortages of food and medicine, and rampant inflation. In March 2025, the island experienced its second nationwide blackout in just four months.
Brazil has become an accessible alternative because it does not require a visa for Cubans, allows them to apply for asylum at the border, and immediately grants access to documentation, work permits, and public services such as health and education.
The most commonly used route departs from Cuba by plane to Georgetown, the capital of Guyana — the only country in the region that does not require a visa for Cubans — and continues by land to Roraima, in northern Brazil.
Roraima accounted for 7,506 of the Cuban applications in the first quarter of 2025, followed by Amapá (3,808), São Paulo (2,284), and Amazonas (1,025).
Not all Cubans have Brazil as their final destination. Researcher João Carlos Jarochinski Silva, coordinator of the International Migration and Refuge Network (Redimir) and a professor at the Federal University of Roraima, explained that “Brazil ends up being a strategic point for the possibility of leaving Cuba, not that these people necessarily aspire to stay here.”
The stories of those who arrive portray the harsh reality of what they left behind. Yanniuris Baronesa Córdoba, 26, left Matanzas leaving her seven-year-old daughter and her mother behind: “The situation in my country is very bad. There is no water, there are no jobs. Sometimes I wake up sad because it’s difficult to be away from my daughter, from my mother. I had never been separated before, but the situation in the country forced me to.”
Yamile Fajado, 38 years old, emigrated from Pinar del Río with her husband in May 2025: "The situation in Cuba is dire, there is a severe lack of electricity, the economy is very bad, and there are no medications."
Despite the massive volume of applications, the formal recognition of refugee status is minimal: out of more than 18,000 requests in the first quarter of 2025, only 324 were recognized by the Brazilian government.
The Cuban emigration to Brazil surged throughout 2025: by the end of the year, annual applications exceeded 41,900, representing an 88% increase compared to the approximately 22,300 recorded in 2024, according to the International Organization for Migration.
The trend continued in 2026. In the first quarter of the year, 13,414 Cubans applied for asylum in Brazil, accounting for 58% of the national total, according to data from the International Migration Observatory published on June 4th.
Irregular migration also increased, along with the associated risks. In April 2025, 18 Cubans were apprehended in Bonfim while being transported in a convoy of three vehicles by Brazilian traffickers.
Between 2024 and May 2026, the Federal Highway Police rescued 189 migrants in Roraima, arrested 31 traffickers, and confiscated 31 vehicles; 91% of those rescued were Cuban.
The researcher Jarochinski Silva dismissed the idea that Roraima will face a mass influx comparable to that of Venezuelans: "Cubans face difficulties in terms of mobility to reach here, which also leads them to consider other destinations. We can't expect a new pattern of migration like the one we experienced at certain times with the Venezuelans."
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