Honduran woman arrested for transporting six Cubans to the U.S.

Honduran authorities detained a Honduran woman on January 17 as she was transporting six Cuban migrants in her vehicle on their way to the United States, reported EFE.

The car was intercepted in the municipality of Namasigüe, between Honduras and Nicaragua, by agents of the Transnational Criminal Investigation Unit of the Police Directorate of Investigations (DPI) and the support of the Tactical Operations Group (GOET).

The 25-year-old woman will be prosecuted for the alleged crime of "illicit trafficking in persons," said the Honduran National Police.

The Cuban migrants were handed over to the authorities. They will be charged with "falsification of documents" after police agents found them using fake Honduran personal identification documents.

The arrest was made to "counteract the crime of human trafficking in its different forms," stated the Honduran Police.

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, Cubans continue to migrate in search of better living conditions. Those who are less fortunate are intercepted before reaching their final destination, which in most cases is the United States or Europe.

In January, Mexico's National Migration Institute (INM) intercepted 69 migrants, including Cubans, who were crammed into a tractor-trailer at the Córdoba-Veracruz federal highway.

The truck was stopped by Mexican authorities while crossing the Cuitláhuac toll booth. 

Mexico is one of the most common routes used by Cubans to reach the United States.

Cubans rank third in asylum applications in Mexico during 2021, only surpassed by migrants from Haiti and Honduras, said Andrés Ramírez, head of the Mexican Commission for Refugee Assistance (Comar).

The official explained that the number of asylum requests in that country almost doubled in 2021 compared to two years earlier. Around 131,448 applications were submitted in 2021, which is 86.84 percent more than in 2019, said Ramírez.