Moscow is 9,582 kilometres from Havana. It takes at least 12 hours by plane to get from one city to the other. However, as Russia allows Cubans to enter the country without a visa and stay for a period of 90 days, it has become one of the main travel destinations for Cubans.

Most arrive looking for job offers, possibilities to make some money; others wish to emigrate to other European countries; and many travel only to buy goods that they then sell in Cuba. Around this, informal networks have developed which provide travel tickets, food, accommodation and promises of work. Often they turn out to be a scam.

In an unknown country, with a hostile climate and a different language and culture, Cubans try to start a new life, look for work on large construction sites (illegally) and send money to help their family; and others just want to spend enough time (one or two weeks) to buy clothes, shoes, car parts, among other things that they can, for a commercial margin, sell on the island.

It is difficult to know the exact number of people in these circumstances, although Cuban consular authorities – in conversation with Pedro Luis García – estimate a floating population of more than 5 500 nationals. This is a small number compared to the nearly 12 million inhabitants of Moscow according to the latest census and the 2.5 million foreigners who are registered each year.

On 27 March Russia decided to close the airports and subsequently decreed a quarantine in view of the spread of COVID-19. Since then the situation for some Cubans has worsened. Many have no money, no work and no chance of getting work; they have been left without a roof over their heads, without food and without any possibility of returning.

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By the time Pedro Luis’ phone rang, it was already dark in Moscow. On the other end of the line four people he did not know were asking him for help. They were Cubans too, they were at the Raminky police station -about a kilometre from his home- and they needed me to act as a translator to ask for an extension of their stay in the country.

They had been victims of a scam: their Registratzia —a compulsory document to prove temporary residence in Russia — turned out to be illegal, and without this document they could not apply for the additional 90 days granted by the authorities. Moreover, they were not able to communicate with the officer and had to pay a fine of 80 dollars for the absence of the document.

Thus began, almost unintentionally, Pedro Luis’ collaboration with the Cubans in Moscow during the pandemic. Over these months, together with Ana Voronkova, he has managed to get help from various organisations, received donations, bought food and basic necessities, helped to obtain housing, paid for medicines, hospitals, and held talks with the Cuban embassy in Russia to find the best solutions.

Pedro Luis Garcia, a Havana law graduate from Cuba who specialises in criminal matters, arrived in Russia six years ago. He is married, 36 years old and has an 18-month-old baby. And like many people, he is also unemployed.

Since the beginning of the pandemic he has been updating data and information on the Cuba Facebook group in Moscow – Russia, which he manages. He had also created a channel on YouTube, MOSCOWEXPRESS, and his first video was on migration issues. So it was easy for many Cubans to identify and communicate with him.

“I am a permanent resident in the country, which allows me to have an employment contract and rights: I receive 60% of my salary and a grant from the government, but there are other Cubans who, not being legal, have no rights, they are migrants. When the quarantine was decreed, jobs were closed, people started asking me a lot of questions and I was able to see at first hand the situation of those who started having problems with the rent; some were eating from the rubbish or had to sleep in the street, that hurt me, because I know what it is like to go through that situation. So I thought: I think it’s time to help and together with my wife we started to look for a way,” says Pedro Luis through WhatsApp.

The Muslim Foundation Casa de la Bondad (Dom Dobroty) was the first to collaborate. He translated the documentation they required for people asking for help and put it on the Facebook group. On the first day alone, 500 applications were received and in total there were more than 900.

“Then the director of the Foundation called me and proposed that I be the intermediary between the institution and the Cubans. I received the requests, translated them and rectified them”. Through the Foundation he met Ana Voronkova, a young Spanish-speaking Russian woman with two years’ experience in an organisation helping African migrants and refugees.

On 21 April they made the first humanitarian delivery. They brought, chicken, mincemeat, beans, pasta, rice, sugar, tomato paste, salt, toilet paper, soap, intimates, eggs, everything that could be bought.

But the Foundation collapsed. “They no longer had any funds; their purpose is to help the Muslim community, who are even poorer than many Cubans. And we were left with nothing again. So we started applying for international aid, making videos online, knocking on friends’ doors. Many people showed solidarity: they sent money through Western Union to buy food and medicine,” explains Pedro Luis.

Most of the Cubans live in Lublino, 40 km from the centre of Moscow where Pedro Luis lives; others are in Jimki, about 59 km away. In this area on the outskirts of the city prices are cheaper and there are large shopping centres where you can go for wholesale shopping.

“The houses and places where they are staying are not in the best conditions. There are houses where up to 22 people live. We find some living in rubbish cans or in containers. There are families who come with children,” says Pedro Luis.

In April 2018, Idalmis Moreno arrived in Russia with her family; she intended to visit her brother, but due to her mother’s illness they decided to stay and present her case to the immigration authorities; she still has no answer.

“At the moment we have no money, there are three girls who have not been able to go to school, the paperwork has to be paid for and we are at the mercy of the various organisations, churches and people who have given us their support, including Pedro Luis and Ana,” writes Idalmis for WhatsApp.

She is a nurse and although she does not have a permit she has collaborated with some Cubans who have needed medical attention, especially pregnant women and young children. The Russian health system provides free care for medical emergencies, but there are treatments such as those for HIV and other conditions that are expensive, she explains.

To request an ambulance or medical service, you must do so in Russian. So, in the middle of this situation, many people who don’t know explain the problem to Idalmis and she in turn tells Ana or Pedro Luis who call and tell what is happening. This has been a solution so far.

Pedro says that they have also moved Cubans to Russian houses, because where they were, they have been thrown out on the street for not paying rent (including other Cubans). The average monthly rent of a good flat is between 600 and 800 dollars. Most Cubans who go shopping pay between $70 and $200 for their stay.

“The last people to contact us were from the War Veterans Association, some of whom had been in Cuba during the Missile Crisis. From their pension, which is minimal, they collected about 15,000 rubles (a little over $250) and a box of honey, and with that we bought more food. What happens with this aid is that it is very punctual: the food runs out, lasts a few days and then they continue in the same situation.

“When I go to bring food, the first thing I do is communicate with people by phone, I already have a list of phone numbers, passport numbers and the address where they are living. I ask how many people are in the house and coordinate according to the neighbourhood and the economy to buy.

Pedro Luis’ routine in these months has changed. He spends a lot of time on the phone – on the most critical day he attended to more than 500 people – answering legal questions, helping with translation, guiding them on what to do, among other things. He estimates that in these months they have been able to help around 590 people in some way; but even so it is insufficient.

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After 4:00 p.m. on Wednesday, June 3, Azur Air flight 9951 took off from Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport. The plane was chartered by the Russian authorities to send home some Latin Americans stranded in Russia after the COVID-19. In Cuba, it would also leave 15,000 diagnostic tests donated by the Russian government to the island.

To board the plane the Cubans had to meet two requirements: 1) be approved by a list of the Cuban Consulate, where they had previously regularised their migratory status, and 2) pay the price of the ticket: $630 (43,726 rubles).

According to Consul Eduardo Lázaro Escandell, in statements to Sputnik, there were more than 100 Cubans with intentions of returning. Some had Aeroflot airline tickets. However, 80 Cuban passengers boarded Flight 9951. According to information from the embassy itself, the passengers were diplomatic officials, their families, and students who were part of the “100 Scholarship” agreement. Only four vulnerable people managed to get a reduction in the price of a ticket.

Among them were Arlet and her husband, who were able to get on at the last minute thanks to the efforts of Ana and Veronika Birman, who have experience in tourism and travel arrangements, and who has helped several people return to their country under these circumstances.

“My husband and I traveled on our honeymoon and decided to stay longer. Our visa ended on March 29th and we were given 3 more months, but everything started to get difficult, we had to pay the rent and I got pregnant with the risk of miscarriage. Although our situation was known to the Embassy and we had permission to take the flight, we didn’t have the money to pay for the tickets,” Arlet explains to elTOQUE while he is in an isolation centre after his arrival in Cuba.

They were two of the four tickets arranged as humanitarian tickets with a 50% discount by Ana and Veronika, who also lent them the money to pay for them.

“We could not get more, because the Cuban consul did not want to collaborate in this. With a note from him to the Russian ministry other Cubans would have obtained humanitarian tickets, but he denied that possibility,” Ana said.

The consulate, for its part, has responded on its Facebook account that more than eight weeks ago it coordinated efforts for the repatriation of Cubans and Russian citizens in Cuba, and that they were not notified of the possibilities of obtaining free tickets by the authorities. During this time they have offered information to all Cubans who have communicated with them. Some have even been given the contact details of Pedro Luis.

More than 90 Cubans are still without a solution, among them Yaima, whose case is peculiar because despite having the money for the ticket she could not board the plane, which travelled with vacant seats. She had to leave the airport with her suitcase packed. Her crying and pleading did not help.

She is 39 years old, has two children in Cuba and a hernia in her hip that makes it difficult for her to move. She had already been to Russia in 2017, when she arrived deceived by promises of work that were not kept. She managed to raise the money for the ticket and returned to Cuba, as stated in her passport, on 8 February 2018. She returned to Moscow on 13 March, a few days before everything was closed, as the companion of someone who had come to buy. However, due to some kind of mistake the Cuban authorities did not recognise her as a resident of the country and therefore did not authorise her to board the plane.

“I don’t understand anything. I don’t sleep, I’m taking pills, I only have the rent paid until the end of the month, after that time, I don’t know what I’ll do, I’ll sleep outside the embassy. My mother had to send me money, she gives it to some friends in Cuba, and her family in the United States sends it to me, because there is no direct way to send money from Cuba to here either,” says Yaima.

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Russia remains in quarantine, although some places have been reopened since 1 June. To go out, you have to apply for a digital permit on a government website, with an identity card and only in Russian. Anyone who goes out without the permit can be fined between 4 000 and 30 000 rubles (about 55-435 dollars). Those who fail to comply with the restrictive measures can also be imprisoned.

Veronika, Ana, Pedro Luis and the more than 25 Russian and other citizens who have helped the Cubans do so voluntarily.

It does not matter if they decided to migrate, if they risked everything for a dream, if they went to try their luck, to buy or for tourism. When the money runs out, you can’t work or go out in the middle of a pandemic, in a foreign country and with a difficult language, fear and despair invade. At that moment, only one thing is needed: help, to survive or to return.