NEILY, Costa Rica — After being deported from the U.S. with his wife and 6-year-old son, German Smirnov, a Russian national, is being held at a migrant camp in the Central American country. After more than a month there, he says he feels he is being forced to consider staying there to live.
Smirnov, 36, is among 110 migrants, mostly from Asian and African countries, who have been detained at the Center for Temporary Attention of Migrants (CATEM) since late February and now find themselves in limbo.
Many of the detainees tell Noticias Telemundo they’re confused and torn over the limited options being offered by Costa Rican officials, including applying for asylum there, going back to their home countries, waiting it out in the shelter or officially documenting their case to request asylum in another country. It’s all while enduring high temperatures and poor food and conditions.
But many of the migrants say they don’t have a safe country to return to and little information to help them.
For the first time since the migrants arrived from the U.S., and following weeks of pressure from activists and lawmakers, Costa Rican authorities have opened up the camp to the media. Several migrants who have had their documents confiscated said that they feel they have few choices about what comes next.
“They tell us nothing here,” Smirnov said. “We’re here for almost 40 days.”
Smirnov, who had planned on requesting asylum in America before the Trump administration suspended asylum at the Southern border, said it’s impossible to return to Russia after fleeing for political reasons.
“It’s complicated. I’m ready to stay here, but I don’t have anywhere to live,” Smirnov said. “I don’t have a job and I don’t speak the local language.”
Costa Rica is one of several Central American countries that has agreed to serve as a bridge between the U.S. and the migrants, many of whom come from countries like China or India.
So far, six people have fled the camp without authorization or documents, said Omer Badilla, Costa Rica’s deputy minister of the interior and police. Dozens more have been repatriated to their home countries, while the majority remain at the center behind a chain-link fence, forbidden to leave the premises.
Until the migrants make an official choice, passports and other identification documents will remain confiscated, Badilla said. As of Monday, the country had not received a formal asylum request from any of the migrants, Badilla said.
Badilla said that the migrants have all been made aware of their options, particularly about the need to formalize their asylum claims with documents in other countries. But he said that many do not want to speak with authorities.
“They’ve been told to document the case, and they’re afraid. We only work on documented cases. They’re afraid to talk to the police,” Badilla said. “We’re working so they can feel confident that we won’t take action against them.”
But Badilla said that the country is guaranteeing that those who feel a “well-founded fear” of returning to their countries of origin will not be forced to do so.
Smirnov said that, if he returns to Russia, he could be forced to join in Moscow’s war against Ukraine.
“They’ll put me in jail or send me to war,” he said. “It’s simple, because my country is at war with a neighboring country.”
A St. Petersburg native, Smirnov was an elections official who was recruited by the Anti-Corruption Foundation, an organization founded by the late opposition leader Alexei Navalny, to expose fraud in last year’s election. Authorities discovered his agreement with the group, he said, and he was forced to flee Russia.
“They caught me while I was recording the whole process,” Smirnov said. “Maybe someone betrayed me, I don’t know.”
Smirnov, who was detained for nearly a month in San Diego before being deported to Costa Rica, said his family had hoped to relocate to Australia or Canada. But he said that their requests for help in relocating to a third country have been ignored by authorities.
Mohammad Saber Asadi, who fled Afghanistan with his wife, Najia, and their almost 3-year-old daughter, Asra, said he’s been searching for a path to another country, like Canada or Germany. But without visas in place, he said that authorities have given him only two options: stay in Costa Rica or go back to Afghanistan.
Asadi, who runs a construction company, fled Afghanistan after he was threatened by the Taliban for selling materials to contractors from the United States or other Western countries. Asadi said that he had already been arrested after the Taliban returned to power in 2021, and can’t risk another stint in prison.
“I don’t know what will happen to me,” Asadi said.
Attempting to start a life in Costa Rica isn’t so simple.
“I would like to go to a country that I can live, that I can make a good future for my family, for my daughter,” Asadi said. “But here in Costa Rica, I think it’s not possible for me. I don’t know Spanish, I don’t have information about the culture of Costa Rica and I don’t have any family here to support me.”
The conditions at the camp haven’t made their time in detention any easier, either, the migrants said. Alexandra, a Russian migrant who requested to go by her first name out of fear of retaliation from the Russian government, said many in the camp are nervous, stressed and lost. There’s little ventilation amid the over-90-degree weather, and many have fallen ill.
“We don’t have air conditioning or fans, some families have sick children, and some women have fainted,” she said.
Asadi also said that while food had been provided by a local restaurant, paid for by the U.S., those meals have since been halted. Migrants have been living on beans and rice on most days, which is particularly difficult for infants, since it’s been challenging to access any baby food. And little drinking water is provided throughout the day.
“We are not free to go outside of here. Here, it’s like a jail,” Asadi said. “The children, they cry every day. They cry.”
Costa Rica’s role in U.S. deportations has drawn criticisms for the past few weeks, with immigrant rights advocates saying that the country is complicit in America’s human rights violations. Badilla has said that Costa Rica agreed to accept the migrants “because of our history and our customs as human rights protectors,” and that the agreement with the Trump administration isn’t based on any special conditions.
“We responded to the United States’ government’s request, and we raised our hand to help them,” Badilla said.
Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves said at a news conference in February that the country is helping its “economically powerful brother from the north.”
“If they impose a tax in our free zones, it’ll screw us,” Chaves said. “I don’t think they’ll do it, thank God … Love is repaid with love. … Two-hundred will come, we treat them well and they will leave.”
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