Nearly 30,000 Cubans currently have asylum applications pending in Uruguay, but only 52 people have been formally recognized as refugees during the last decade, according to a report published by the Uruguayan newspaper El País.
The difference between the two figures highlights the magnitude of the migration bottleneck facing the South American country. According to the media outlet, the recognitions have been sporadic: two Cubans obtained refugee status in 2025, six in 2024, and seven in 2023, while the year with the most grants was 2019, with 13 cases.
At the same time, the number of applications continues to rise. Each month, around 30 Cubans enter through the Rivera border crossing and request asylum, so the total continues to grow, the report adds.
Uruguay’s Deputy Foreign Minister, Valeria Csukasi, attributed the backlog primarily to a “structural mismatch” between the volume of applications and the institutional and operational capacity of the Refugee Commission (CORE) to process them. She had previously explained to BBC Mundo that the agency is facing difficulties in responding to the volume of cases.
The situation has also generated criticism within the Uruguayan political system. Leydis Aguilera, an alternate deputy for the National Party, born in Cuba and a resident of Uruguay for 16 years, attributed the delay to an alleged lack of political will on the part of left-wing governments to recognize the situation of Cubans as a human rights issue.
“We are political, economic, and humanitarian exiles,” stated Aguilera, who maintained that many Cubans arrive in Uruguay after long journeys through different countries and, once in Uruguayan territory, face a second difficulty in regularizing their immigration status.
The congresswoman also cited the situation of Venezuelans as an example, arguing that when political will exists, mechanisms can be found to resolve regularization problems. These statements reflect her political assessment and do not constitute an official conclusion regarding the causes of the delay.
The problem had already reached significant dimensions in 2023 and 2024. In 2023, 7,293 Cubans applied for asylum in Uruguay, according to data cited by El País, while migrant organizations estimated that at least 5,000 Cubans were then in a “migratory limbo”: they had a provisional document as asylum seekers, but had not obtained that status and could not easily access permanent residency.
That provisional document allowed them to work and access basic services, but it didn’t solve other problems, including family reunification. One of the difficulties in obtaining permanent residency was related to the documentary and consular requirements Uruguay imposed on Cuban citizens.
In particular, since January 2023 Uruguay has required Cubans seeking certain visas to have an entry and exit stamp from Brazil in their passports, a requirement that is difficult to meet due to the characteristics of the land border between the two countries, El País explained at the time.
In response to this scenario, the Uruguayan government created in May 2024 the Residency Program by Roots, intended for asylum seekers who had entered the country legally, had been in Uruguayan territory for at least 180 days and could demonstrate work, family or study roots.
The program allowed people to voluntarily opt for regular residency instead of continuing with the refugee process.
The measure was presented by Uruguayan authorities and UNHCR as a way to regularize the status of people who had been trapped for long periods in the asylum system. In December 2024, the Ministry of the Interior reported that more than 300 documents had already been granted through this mechanism. @ADNCuba
Original article
Comments