More Than 800,000 Nicaraguans Left the Country Since 2018
HAVANA TIMES – At least 800,000 Nicaraguans, 11.6% of the total population, have left Nicaragua between April 2018 and November 2025, according to data from the Collective for Human Rights and Historical Memory of Nicaragua, released on Thursday, December 18, on the occasion of International Migrants Day.
“Every December 18, the world commemorates the dignity and rights of migrants. In Nicaragua, this date is marked by the scandalous figure of 800,000 Nicaraguans forced to leave the country in an unprecedented exodus because of the lack of freedoms,” stated the NGO, made up mostly of Nicaraguan activists and based in San José.
The organization noted that those who have left Nicaragua are seeking refuge, protection, and opportunities in other countries—something that in their own country “today is impossible due to persecution, lack of freedom, lack of democracy, and, most importantly, a lack of respect for life.”
It also observed that, in Nicaragua’s case, this is not a free choice to migrate, but rather the direct result “of years of systematic repression, harassment, and political persecution carried out by the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo.”
“This migration impoverishes Nicaragua and Nicaraguans. It ruins the country’s future because every person who emigrates is one less who, through their intellect and work, could contribute to the nation’s development. And Nicaragua thus loses its most essential resource: human value,” the organizarion criticized.
Closure of organizations
Likewise, the NGO warned that since 2018 “this dictatorship has also confiscated and shut down 5,651 civil society organizations and 41 universities,” has stripped 492 Nicaraguans of their nationality, and has forced into exile more than 307 journalists and a similar number of religious figures.
“It is responsible for the theft of hundreds of properties and for crimes against humanity,” it added.
In addition, those who report the human rights violations occurring in Nicaragua face banishment, denationalization, de facto statelessness, and criminalization, it warned.
“This public policy of banishment and confiscation, valued at least 250 million dollars and affecting companies, civil society organizations, universities, and individuals, involving all the structures of the dictatorial State, causes the separation of families and communities and creates new generations of Nicaraguans who grow up in exile, facing discrimination and precariousness,” it stated.
“On this day, we call on the international community to denounce banishment as a State policy in Nicaragua, to continue applying international pressure over the serious human rights violations and crimes against humanity committed in our country, and to guarantee protection and refuge mechanisms for those forced to flee,” it urged.
The crisis Nicaragua has experienced since April 2018 has caused the largest exodus in its history, even surpassing that of the 1980s, when the country endured a civil war that left tens of thousands dead, according to the Human Rights Collective.
First published in Spanish by Confidencial and translated and posted in English by Havana Times.