Cubans Seeking Asylum in Brazil Nearly Triple After Leaving "Mais (More Doctors) Médicos"

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Cubans Seeking Asylum in Brazil Nearly Triple After Leaving "Mais (More Doctors) Médicos" | The Rio Times
Arkady Petrov

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – “I can’t go back to Cuba. I won’t be accepted there.” Karel Enrique Sanchez Fuentes, a 35-year-old physician, is one of 2,209 Cubans who applied for asylum in Brazil between November 2018, when the Caribbean country’s Mais Médicos agreement was terminated, and April 2019.

The figure is nearly three times what it was a year earlier. From November 2017 to April 2018, when the agreement was in full force, there were 880 requests. As a result, from an average of 4.86 applications per day, the rate climbed to 12.62 after Cuba’s withdrawal from the program. The data are from the National Committee for Refugees (CONARE).

Cuban requests for asylum had been growing since the beginning of 2013 when Mais Médicos commenced. In November 2018, however, there has been an unprecedented increase that persists through February 2019.

Read more at: https://riotimesonline.com/brazil-news/rio-politics/cubans-seeking-asylum-in-brazil-nearly-triple-after-leaving-mais-medicos/