The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) was expelled from Nicaragua on the same day it revealed that the number of Nicaraguans requesting international protection had quintupled from 70,786 to 386,221 between 2020 and 2024.<\/p>\n\n
The figures were published in the 2024 \u201cAnnual Global Trends Report\u201d, released on June 12. The report warned that the \u201cnumber of people displaced by war, violence and persecution around the world is unsustainably high, particularly as humanitarian funding evaporates.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
In response to the report, the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo withdrew from UNHCR<\/a>, after accusing it of issuing \u201cbiased and partial\u201d publications and of \u201cbecoming an instrument of manipulation, double standards and interference in the internal affairs of States.\u201d<\/p>\n\n Despite these accusations, the self-appointed \u201cco-presidents\u201d avoided referring to the report published in English on the UNHCR website<\/a>, 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.<\/p>\n\n The data on Nicaragua, analyzed by CONFIDENCIAL<\/strong>, confirms the increase of refugees since 2021, the year Ortega and Murillo intensified their repression to secure Ortega’s \u201creelection\u201d for a fourth consecutive term. That same year marked the beginning of the exodus of Nicaraguan migrants to the United States.<\/p>\n\n In 2021, UNHCR reported that 175,060 Nicaraguans requested international protection \u2013 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. <\/p>\n\n 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<\/a>. 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. <\/p>\n\n Meanwhile, the new report gives details on the current population that was recognized as refugees, as well as those who are requesting international protection. <\/p>\n\nNumber of Nicaraguan refugees rose sharply since 2021 <\/h2>\n\n