Costa Rica announced on Monday that it would receive a flight this week from the United States carrying 200 migrants from Central Asia and India, making it the second nation of Central America to accept the deportees of distant countries which had illegally crossed in the United States.
Last week, Panama received three American deportation flights, carrying migrants from the countries of Asia, the Middle East and Africa.
Such flights seem to be the new Trump administration tactic to deal with unauthorized migrants from countries it may not be easy to return them, because the administration seeks to increase deportations. Rather than keeping these migrants in detention centers on the southern border, the administration recruits other countries arranged to accept them, where it is not clear what will finally happen to the deportees.
While traveling through Central America and the Caribbean earlier this month, Secretary of State Marco Rubio received insurance from several governments, including Panama and that of Costa Rica, that they were determined to work With the Trump administration on migration issues. But few details have been offered.
In its announcement on Monday, the Costaorian government said that the first group of deportees would arrive on a commercial flight on Wednesday afternoon.
Costa Rica said its territory “would serve as a bridge for the return of migrants to their country of origin and that the repatriation process would be” entirely funded by the United States government, under the supervision of the International Organization for Migration “, One the United Nations agency which, according to Costa Rica, is responsible for the care of migrants during their stay in the country. Panama has described a similar process for deportees sent by the United States.
Representatives of the United Nations Agency in Costa Rica did not immediately respond to a request for comments.
After their arrival at the main airport in the service of San José, the capital, the deportees will be transported in a migrant refuge in the canton of Corredores, in the south of the country, said Costa Rica.
Costarian officials did not say how many migrants they expected that the United States finally sends, or how long they would stay at Costa Rica before being sent to their country of origin.
Not long ago, the Costa Rica was struggling with the way of facing thousands of migrants who are heading for the American border. His shelters were crowded with people who, in many cases, had crossed the perilous gap of Darién, between Colombia and Panama, to reach Central America.
In the past year, the number of migrants crossing Costa Rica has dropped considerably while the United States, Mexico and Panama hardened their borders and improved the application of immigration.
