Brazil records 33,185 Cuban asylum applications in nine months

Brazil recorded 33,185 applications for refugee recognition submitted by Cuban citizens between January and September 2026, according to tables from the Observatory of International Migration. The total brings together applications registered during those nine months. September had the highest monthly figure, with 4,885 applications, marking the peak of the period. The cumulative figure, by contrast, represents the volume registered throughout the interval, not only the final month's result.

The monthly count increased from 3,448 applications in January to 4,885 in September. The final month's figure was 13.8 percent higher than August and 19.6 percent above September 2025, when 4,084 applications were recorded. The comparisons show increases over both the preceding month and the same month a year earlier. In each case, the measure concerns applications submitted, not cases that were already pending.

At the same time, 99,306 asylum applications from Cuban citizens remained pending review in Brazil in September. They represented 58.7 percent of the 169,136 applications from all nationalities still in process in the country. The pending figure describes files that had not yet been reviewed, while 33,185 refers to submissions registered from January through September. The two amounts therefore measure different things and should not be added as though they described one group.

The 58.7 percent share compares pending Cuban applications with the total pending across all nationalities; it does not indicate the share of new applications during the period submitted by Cubans. That separate measure is the cumulative 33,185 applications. Read together, the records show both the volume of new submissions over nine months and the number of Cuban applications still pending in September. The monthly high of 4,885 belongs to that final month of the January-to-September period.