A video posted on Facebook documents a nighttime scene at Terminal 3 of the José Martí International Airport in Havana: at least five children aged between nine and eleven persistently approach travelers exiting the building to ask them for money, with no police officers or airport security personnel intervening.
The author of the complaint, identified as Bautense Ferever, describes a situation that goes beyond a simple request for help: "They don't ask for just a little assistance; they demand money with an aggression inappropriate for their age. What is alarming is not only the constant harassment but also the reaction to refusal: insults, slurs, and a hostile attitude toward travelers who decide not to succumb to emotional extortion."
What alarms the complainant the most is the lack of authority in a highly sensitive area: “How is it possible that minors roam freely and operate with complete impunity in the outer perimeter of an international airport?” he asks in his post, which has garnered over 240,000 views.
The user directly questions the airport administration, law enforcement authorities, and the Ministry of the Interior, concluding that "what occurred that night in Terminal 3 of José Martí Airport reflects a complex problem that combines a loss of institutional control and an alarming social crisis."
The episode is not isolated. In December 2024, a child selling candy at that same terminal was taken away in a police patrol amidst tears. Earlier that same year, four minors were seen alone begging for money on the highway entering Havana through the municipality of Cotorro, with the oldest being about ten years old and a girl around seven.
The documented cases in 2026 have multiplied across the country. A ten-year-old was selling garlic and bread in the street without having eaten that day in September; in July, an 11-year-old was collecting cans early in the morning in Camagüey to help his family; in October, a 12-year-old girl was selling sweets after losing her home in a cyclone.
The Cuban Observatory of Conflicts recorded dozens of reports of child labor and begging just during 2025, and the Cuban government itself acknowledged at the end of that year that nearly 200,000 children and adolescents were in vulnerable situations. A survey conducted in May 2026 revealed that 33.9% of households reported that at least one member had gone to bed hungry in the previous 30 days.
The Law 178 of 2025, known as the Code of Childhood, Adolescence, and Youth, expressly prohibits the use of minors for soliciting money and classifies it as child exploitation. However, the gap between the law and reality is evident: while the police detain street-selling children, groups of minors operate at night around an international airport without anyone stopping them. The Union of Young Communists denied in June 2026 that child labor existed in Cuba, in open contradiction to cases documented by independent media and monitoring organizations.
"Elementary school children should be at home or in school, not wandering around airports at night exposed to marginalization, violence, and social disintegration," wrote from Bautense Ferever, in a statement that encapsulates the human dimension of a crisis that worsens in direct correlation to the deepening economic collapse of the Island.
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