Cuba

Among the countries of the Caribbean, Cuba is the country with the lowest migrant stocks compared to its total population, with immigrants accounting only for 0.1 per cent of its total population. Nevertheless, many estimations have shown that Cuba is also the host country of the biggest number of refugees in the Caribbean. The biggest country of origin of migrants in Cuba is Haiti.

Also, Cuba is the main sending country in absolute terms in the Caribbean, with more than 1 million emigrants, accounting for around 10 to 15 per cent of country’s population. The United States, Mexico and Canada are the main countries of destination of recent Cuban emigration flows.

Likewise, the country is a major country of transit for continental and extra-continental migration flows and, in particular of Caribbean migration flows in transit, which are intending to migrate primarily to the United States.

IOM in Cuba

Cuba became an IOM Observer State in November 1997.

IOM supports the Cuban government in the framework of the Organizations’ mandate. In Cuba, IOM currently cooperates in the following strategic areas:

• Assistance for resettling refugees, who arrive to the country from other ones without having planned Cuba as a destination.
• Facilitation of the process of voluntary repatriation process of stranded migrants in Cuba.
• Assistance for family reunification cases.
• Support for reintegration of Cuban citizenships who had returned voluntarily to the country.