Ortega Expels UN Refugee Agency Over Report on Nicaraguans
Far from recognizing its responsibility in this humanitarian crisis, the dictatorship announced that Nicaragua was withdrawing from UNHCR
HAVANA TIMES – The United Nations chief refugee agency (UNHCR) was expelled from Nicaragua on the same day it revealed that the number of Nicaraguans requesting international protection had quintupled between 2020 and 2024 – going from 70,786 to 386,221.
The figures were published in the 2024 “Annual Global Trends Report”, released on June 12. The report warned that the “number of people displaced by war, violence and persecution around the world is unsustainably high, particularly as humanitarian funding evaporates.”
In response to the report, the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo withdrew from UNHCR, after accusing it of issuing “biased and partial” publications and of “becoming an instrument of manipulation, double standards and interference in the internal affairs of States”.
Despite these accusations, the self-appointed “co-presidents” avoided referring to the report published in English on the UNHCR website, which also provides access to a data table for each country detailing the historical record of refugee applications, the cases approved, the countries that granted international protection, and some demographic data on the migrants, exiles and stateless persons.
Number of Nicaraguan refugees rose sharply since 2021
The data on Nicaragua, which was analyzed by CONFIDENTIAL, confirms the increase of refugees since 2021, the year in which Ortega and Murillo intensified their repression to assure the dictator’s “reelection” for a fourth consecutive term. That same year the exodus of Nicaraguan migrants to the United States also began.
In 2021, UNHCR reported that 175,060 Nicaraguans requested international protection – 164% more than the 70,786 reported in 2020. In 2022, the figure rose to 293,750; in 2023, to 333,515; and for 2024, it closed at 386,221.
However, the UN agency clarified that this number is lower than the figure of 446,336 they gave in March 2024, when they corrected data cited in a report of the Group of Experts on Human Rights on Nicaragua. The larger number represented the total number of applications that had been received up until June 2023, including cases that were rejected, people who died, those naturalized, and resolved applications for refugee status.
Meanwhile, the new report gives details on the current population that was recognized as refugees, as well as those who are requesting international protection.
Only 7.7% obtained refugee status
The UNHCR report reveals that, as of December 2024, only 7.7%, – equivalent to 30,020 Nicaraguans of the 386,221 who filed applications – had been granted refugee status.
The countries which approved the most requests for international protection are:
- Costa Rica – 15,327 cases approved
- United States – 5,942 cases approved
- Spain – 3,228 cases approved
- Mexico – 2,838 cases approved
- Canada – 930 cases approved
The countries with the most refugee cases pending are Costa Rica, with at least 190,037 refugee applications, followed by the United States with 144,767 cases, Mexico with 8,817 applications, Spain with 5,420, and Panama with 4,940.
The UNHCR report also details that it has provided assistance to 9,597 Nicaraguans, who don’t meet the requirements to be refugees, and haven’t formally requested asylum, but face situations of risk or vulnerability that merit humanitarian aid or monitoring.
Among this group are 1,791 identified during humanitarian operations carried out in Guatemala in 2024, plus 1,813 in Mexico and 5,993 in Honduras.
The dictatorship responds with further isolation
Far from recognizing its responsibility in this humanitarian crisis, the Ortega-Murillo dictatorship announced that Nicaragua was withdrawing from UNHCR, which it accused without evidence of “manipulation” and “interference”.
“UNHCR applies different standards between countries, acting permissively and tolerantly, with total indifference to the irrational barbarities that the big powers commit against the developing countries,” the dictatorship stated in a letter addressed to Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.
In the report, the international agency notes: “the main drivers of displacement continue to be major conflicts such as those in Sudan, Myanmar and Ukraine, and the continued failure to stop the fighting.”
This is the sixth international agency that Nicaragua has withdrawn from in 2025. In February, they left the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and subsequently the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC), the International Labor Organization (ILO), the International Organization for Migration (IOM), and the United Nations Organization for Education, Science and Culture (UNESCO).
First published in Spanish by Confidencial and translated and posted in English by Havana Times.