These are the main scams for Cubans who tried to travel abroad in 2021
Documentary fraud is a phenomenon that alerts the Cuban Ministry of the Interior (MININT), due to the almost half a thousand papers that have been seized from Cuban travelers that turned out not to be legitimate and false.
As explained in the Round Table, January 20, the Head of Identification, Immigration and Foreigners Departmen of the of the MININT, Colonel Mario Méndez Mayedo, the main forged documents are visas, residences, work permits and passports from other countries.
“It is impossible to make an irregular transit without being victims of coyotes, traffickers, etc,” he said. “There are also kidnappings, rapes of women and men, extortion and unfortunately also women: either by traffickers or long crossings.”
In 2021, 459 people were detected with false documentation, both in Cuba and when returning from abroad. They had 591 false documents.
In addition to these, there are also very strong pressures on relatives in Cuba or the USA to pay for these people who have been victims.
He said that last Saturday at José Martí airport, 17 people proved that they had false tickets for which they had paid 3500 dollars. And there are operations of more than 12 thousand dollars swindled.
Méndez Mayedo suggested to Cubans to disregard any procedure or formalities that deviate from the legally established formalities; that are carried out in the surroundings of the embassies and not inside the diplomatic headquarters and by people not officially linked to them; that give supposed facilities and agility in the procedures or unreal guarantees.
In a television report a Cuban woman named Elizabeth was interviewed, who declared that from the United States her husband paid 6500 dollars for a visa to Mexico, which was identified as fraudulent at the moment of boarding the plane.
“That person they contacted from the USA assured us that it was legitimate and there would be no problems, but we had to pay him to bypass some steps.”
The procedures have many security measures and although some people always assure that “they have solved”, Colonel Méndez Mayedo clarifies that many people continue believing in these people who promise them fast and false departures for large amounts of money.
