10 June 2023 , 06:00
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A Cuban refugee has described the inhumane conditions under which he was detained after arriving at the US border to apply for asylum.
Manuel Rodríguez*, 33, was ill with an extremely high fever and a persistent cough when he arrived at the US border with Mexico near El Paso, Texas, in 2018.
He was immediately incarcerated and forced to relive what he describes as similar to the horrific torture that he went through in Cuba.
In the country where he turned for refuge, he was instead treated "inhumanely", forced to survive freezing nights with no heating, hunger and humiliation, he claims.
Manuel Rodríguez arrived at the US border with a high fever and cough (stock photo) (AFP via Getty Images)Manuel's journey to the border was long and tough. To get to Mexico, he had to jump between various means of transportation, "mainly buses and cars" through Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, and Guatemala.
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He told the Mirror: "I was one of the lucky ones. I know of other people who wanted to apply for asylum and couldn't afford the transportation to get there. They had to walk through all this distance."
Before seeking safety in the US, Manuel was detained and tortured by police guards on two different occasions in his home country, after posting criticism against the authoritarian government online.
Manuel claims he was treated "inhumanely," enduring freezing nights, hunger, and humiliation (stock photo) (AFP via Getty Images)He said: "It was very traumatising. I was kept at the police station twice for almost 72 hours. They were asking me the same questions again and again.
"They would repeat and repeat and repeat in the same way, almost forever, trying to get me to change my mind or say something different."
Asked about the strength it took to flee the country and seek protection abroad, he said: "There comes a moment when you really give up and want to take a chance in your life. You need to decide how to protect your future.
Manuel described the financial struggles faced by others who couldn't afford transportation (stock photo) (Getty Images)"If I stayed I would be tortured, or maybe I could be in jail forever. Maybe something worse would happen. I had to try and escape to avoid that situation of being tortured or harassed by the government. So I decided to seek asylum in the US."
But even though he turned to the country hoping for protection, he said he felt like he was treated like a criminal, and faced "terrifying" policies as he was kept in the dark about the procedures and the next steps he had to take.
Despite having brought evidence to support his asylum case and his future life in the US, such as certificates and personal paperwork, he says he was forced to discard them along with any personal items.
Manuel fled his home country to protect his future, seeking asylum in the US (stock photo) (AFP via Getty Images)Describing his time in detention, he said: "They put handcuffs and feet cuffs on me which were all connected with a chain, and I was held in chaperone along with some two thousand more people.
"From there I was sent to a detention centre in California with all cuffs still on me. I could hardly move or walk yet I was cuffed like this even on the plane, during the whole flight."
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Looking back to his traumatic experience, Manuel said he was "shocked" to be treated in the US in a similar way as in the country where he escaped from.
Despite bringing evidence, Manuel had to discard personal items and paperwork (stock photo) (AFP via Getty Images)He said: "It was very creepy, very awful because really, I was escaping from the same situation that I ended up going through here in the United States.
"I was shocked and kept asking myself, 'Why is this happening to me? Will no one explain this situation? Not a word on what I'm going to deal with? It's really uncertain pain. What is my future really here?'."
The Mirror reached out to legal and humanitarian support provider, Al Otro Lado. Attorney and legal director Karlyn Kurichety denounced how the fate of asylum seekers is entirely "random".
She said: "The incarceration of asylum seekers in the US is a big problem and it is done with total randomness - there are no standard procedures.
Manuel questioned why he escaped one oppressive situation only to face another (stock photos) (AFP via Getty Images)"Some may be incarcerated, some will be given parole; some are returned to Mexico with Title 42. And the randomness of this is really terrifying to those people."
She went on to describe the situation asylum seekers face, adding: "The conditions when someone is initially detained at the border are really inhumane.
"People are held in extremely cold areas, and they are not allowed to keep their belongings or even evidence they might be bringing to support their case."
*Name has been changed to protect identity