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‘Driven Out by Despair’: Thousands of Cubans find refuge in Guyana
…as economic crisis deepens due to U.S. sanctions
(Kaieteur News) – Every day, flights from Cuba touch down at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport carrying more people fleeing an economy that many say can no longer sustain them.
Some arrive to embrace relatives. Others step into the unknown with little more than a suitcase and hope. Increasingly, many are choosing Guyana, a country that has quietly become one of the region’s newest destinations for Cubans escaping economic hardship.
For many, the journey ends not in prosperity but on the streets of Georgetown, where dozens gather each morning outside Bounty Supermarket at Orange Walk and other locations, hoping a contractor will stop and offer them a day’s work.
Cubans waiting for on-the-spot hire for jobs in the construction sector.
The growing Cuban presence was recently highlighted in a New York Times documentary, which documented how thousands have sought refuge in Guyana, one of the few countries that still permits Cubans to enter without a visa.
The migration is part of one of the largest population movements in Cuba’s modern history.
Although the Cuban Government has not released official figures, researchers estimate that more than one million people have left the island in recent years as the country grapples with chronic shortages of food, medicine, fuel and electricity, alongside soaring inflation and a prolonged economic downturn.
Research published by Spain’s Universidad de Navarra in August 2025 concluded that the exodus accelerated dramatically between 2021 and 2023. The study cited Cuban demographer Juan Carlos Albizu-Campos, whose analysis suggests that only about 8.62 million people remain on the island, a population decline of roughly 18 percent in just two years.
While the majority of Cuban migrants have headed to the United States, increasing numbers are now making Guyana their destination.
This newspaper has observed flights arriving almost daily with Cuban nationals, while members of the local Cuban community say many newcomers are working tirelessly to earn enough money to reunite with spouses, children and parents left behind.
One of them is a 60-year-old electrician from Havana whom Kaieteur News met while searching for work in Berbice.
He said he would gladly accept any job, construction, cleaning or manual labour, because his immediate goal is to save enough money to purchase a plane ticket for his wife.
She is a medical doctor in her 50s.
Yet such is the severity of Cuba’s economic crisis that she is willing to leave behind her profession and begin again in Guyana doing whatever work she can find, even if that means cleaning homes or stocking supermarket shelves.
His story echoes those featured in the New York Times documentary. Many Cuban migrants now crowd into small apartments, sharing rent and meals while waiting for opportunities to earn enough to survive. Contractors have become so accustomed to their daily presence that some no longer advertise for temporary labour, instead sending supervisors to the locations where Cubans gather each morning in search of work.
Earlier this year, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) reported that Guyana has emerged as a key destination and transit point in changing Cuban migration patterns, reflecting a significant shift in migration flows across South America and the Caribbean.
A 2025 report by Stabroek News estimated that nearly 6,000 Cubans were already living in Guyana. Community members believe that number has increased considerably over the past year, although no official count has been released.
Behind the statistics, however, are thousands of personal stories of sacrifice.
Doctors willing to become cleaners.
Electricians prepared to do construction work.
Families separated by thousands of miles, each hoping that today’s wages in Guyana will one day buy a ticket for a loved one to join them.
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