First Amendment:
Paris (AFP) – More than 70% of people who applied for asylum in the United States in 2021 came from Latin America and the Caribbean, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development noted Monday in a report highlighting the global increase in applications from Nicaraguans.
Asylum applications in Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) member states exceeded one million in 2021, and in addition to the United States, the main destinations were Germany and Mexico.
The main countries of origin of the applicants were Nicaragua (110,000), Afghanistan (more than 100,000) and Syria (about 95,000). Nicaraguans submitted six times more applications than in 2020.
According to the annual report on migration from the Paris-based organization, the world’s leading economy received 190,000 applications last year, 26% less than in 2020, of whom 27 thousand were from Venezuela.
These immigrants follow from Guatemala (23,000), Honduras (20,000) and El Salvador (15,000), although applications from Central American nationals were a third lower than in 2020.
About 13,000 Cubans applied for asylum in 2021 (+35%) in the United States; They are followed by the Colombians (11,200) and the Haitians (10,000). The OECD concludes that “more than 70% of asylum seekers in the United States come from Latin American and Caribbean countries.”
Germany received nearly 150,000 applications in 2021, mostly Syrians (55,000), Afghans (23,000) and Iraqis (16,000).
Mexico, which has not appeared since 2016 among the main host countries for protection applicants, was third in 2021, according to the economic organization’s report.
Of the 130,000 applications, 52,000 were Haitians and 36,000 Hondurans.
Costa Rica, for its part, “confirms the revival of demand for international protection in Central and South America,” becoming the fourth OECD country in terms of the number of applications.
The more than 100,000 asylum seekers they have received come from neighboring Nicaragua, where the political crisis has continued since the 2018 opposition protests against the regime of Daniel Ortega.
The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development promotes economic growth and international trade, and its 38 member states—including Mexico, Chile, Colombia, and Costa Rica—account for 60% of global economic output.
© 2022 AFP
