Costa Rica has received almost 200,000 refugee applications in the last decade, of which 89% correspond to Nicaraguans, whose numbers increased exponentially as of 2018 with the sociopolitical crisis generated by the protests against the Government of Daniel Ortega .
Data from the Refugee Unit of the Costa Rican Migration Directorate indicates that between 2013 and 2017 the country received a total of 15,352 applications, but with the crisis in Nicaragua the number from 2018 to May 2022 reached 175,055.
The director of the Refugee Unit, Esther Núñez, said this Monday at the forum “Demolishing Walls, Building Hope”, organized by SOS Nicaragua within the framework of Refugee Day, that Costa Rica has a “very limited capacity” to handle that number of requests.
The Refuge Unit only has the director and 3 lawyers, before which Núñez valued the support of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) for the hiring of 24 lawyers and 15 clerks who have allowed to open offices in the area border with Nicaragua.
Related news: Costa Rica will indefinitely close the consulate in Chinandega
Núñez also warned that “a large part” of the people who request refuge in Costa Rica do so “because they need to regulate their immigration status, but they do not really qualify for refuge.”
The president of Costa Rica, Rodrigo Chaves, said on June 10 at the Summit of the Americas that his country is the Latin American nation with the highest percentage of regular migrants in proportion to its population, with 12%, but warned that this figure it could rise to 20% if irregular migrants are taken into account.
Given this, he requested international support so that Costa Rica can deal with the care of migrants and refugee applicants, since it has limited resources.
The UNHCR representative in Costa Rica, Milton Moreno, recalled that after 2018 it has increased its support for the Costa Rican government to respond to the situation of Nicaraguans, focusing on the most vulnerable people as a priority.
“We have tried to make sure that the situation that Costa Rica faces is not forgotten. We still have a big situation in the south of the continent with the movement of Venezuelan people and in the north with people trying to go to the United States,” Moreno said.
Related news: “Nicaraguans flee due to generalized violence,” says the DD agency. H H.
Moreno emphasized that the international community must make a greater effort to deal with the migratory crises and, with regard to Costa Rica, provide support so that it can sustain its public service programs such as health and education.
“Costa Rica is a country that stands out for its human rights policies, open borders, but also that generosity must sometimes be rewarded in a certain way so that there is a shared responsibility of the international community,” he said.
At the forum, a group of civil society organizations signed a declaration calling on the international community and international cooperation to “accelerate efforts to provide comprehensive and sustainable care to all people who have been forced to move”.
The organizations highlighted the tradition of receiving migrants and human rights in Costa Rica, but asked it to improve the processes of regularization of migration and asylum seekers, expand access to health as an inalienable right for all human beings, and strengthen educational institutions. to ensure equity of access.
