Immigration authorities in Costa Rica said on Monday (December 28) they have started deportation proceedings for 56 Cubans who crossed into their border after the nation stopped issuing transit visas for Cubans trying to reach the United States.
Costa Rica stopped giving out transit visas to Cubans on Dec. 18.
The Cubans are being held in capital San Jose.
“We have 56 people of Cuban nationality who were picked up coming into the country illegally. As per the announcement made by the President on December 18, Cubans are no longer to receive transit visas. Some people tried to come in illegally and of course, the migration law is applied in these cases, which means these people are to be deported.” said Costa Rica’s Assistant Director of Immigration, Gladys Jimenez.
Jimenez said they were in talks with the Cuban government to begin deportations of more Cubans back to the island.
“Earlier, Costa Rica was deporting (migrants) to Nicaragua because Cuba told us (they would only accept) people who had committed a crime or wanted to return voluntarily to Cuba. That was not the case for the Cuban migrants who were in Costa Rica. The migrants had been deported to Nicaragua. However, we are still in talks so that we are able to carry out the deportations (of the migrants) back to their country, Cuba,” Jimenez said.
Nicaragua has refused to let the growing number of Cubans trying to reach the United States pass through its territory. About 5,000 Cubans are estimated to be on the border.
Central America and Mexico have seen a surge in migrants from the Caribbean island as the process of a detente between Washington and Havana raises the prospect that current U.S. asylum rights for Cubans may soon end.
Last week the Nicaraguan government proposed that the U.S. government organise an airlift to take the migrants directly from Costa Rica to the United States. The Costa Rican government has tried to convince both Belize and Guatemala to allow the Cubans passage to reach Mexico.
Source : Reuters