(Kaieteur News) – Every day, flights from Cuba touch down at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport carrying more people fleeing an economy that many say can no longer sustain them.

Some arrive to embrace relatives. Others step into the unknown with little more than a suitcase and hope. Increasingly, many are choosing Guyana, a country that has quietly become one of the region’s newest destinations for Cubans escaping economic hardship.

For many, the journey ends not in prosperity but on the streets of Georgetown, where dozens gather each morning outside Bounty Supermarket at Orange Walk and other locations, hoping a contractor will stop and offer them a day’s work.