MEXICO CITY — A U.S. flight carrying 135 deportees, half of them minors, from various countries was set to land Thursday in Costa Rica, making it the second Latin American nation to serve as a stopover as U.S. ‘s administration steps up deportations.
Upon arrival, the migrants will be bused from Costa Rica’s capital to a rural holding facility near the Panama border, where they will wait up to 30 days to be flown back to their countries of origin, said Omer Badilla, Costa Rica’s deputy minister of the interior and police. The U.S. government will cover the costs.
The arrangement is part of a deal the Trump administration struck with Costa Rica during earlier this month. Similar agreements were reached with a handful of Latin American nations, but the concept of using third countries as deportation layovers has drawn strong criticism from human rights advocates.
Beyond the conditions of their detention in Costa Rica, concerns revolve around international protections for asylum seekers and whether these deportees will be appropriately screened before being returned to their countries or sent to yet another country.
Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves told reporters Wednesday that his country is helping its “economically powerful brother from the north.” It comes as Trump has pressured countries across the region to help facilitate deportations at times .
Panama this week became the first such country to accept 299 deportees from other nations, with the government holding . About one-third of those who refused to voluntarily return to their countries bordering Colombia on Wednesday. The rest were awaiting commercial flights back home.
On Tuesday, a number of those detained in the hotel held up signs reading “please help us” and “We are not save (sic) in our country” against their room windows.
“We’ve thrown out the possibility of a hotel, precisely to avoid a situation similar to that in Panama,” Badilla told The Associated Press.
Badilla said that Thursday’s deportation flight from San Diego will be largely made up of families, including 65 children and two pregnant women. He said Costa Rica was told by the Trump administration that most of the deportees have agreed to voluntarily return to their countries.
If they refuse, Costa Rica is open to offering deportees refuge or will work with the U.N.’s International Organization for Migration, IOM, to facilitate travel to another third country.
“Costa Rica is a country that guarantees human rights,” he said. “We are going to guarantee that they are returned to safe countries. We cannot leave that to chance because of an ethical and moral commitment of our country.”
In the meantime, migrants will be detained in the border facility, where they will be accompanied by U.N. officials, the Red Cross and other aid-focused government entities to “guarantee their rights,” Badilla said.
The facility being used to hold migrants, a former factory, has faced criticisms for its conditions in the past.
During a visit by the AP in October 2023, migrants were Many slept in tents on the ground, where some said liquid from portable toilets leaked. Badilla said that facilities have since been improved, but the government has denied journalists access to the building.
IOM said in a statement to the AP that “we do not have direct involvement in the detention or restriction of movement of individuals” and that it was providing humanitarian support and supporting voluntary returns to their countries and “identifying safe alternatives for others.”
“We are committed to ensuring that all migrants are treated with dignity and in accordance with international standards,” the agency said.
____
Associated Press reporter María Verza contributed to this report from Mexico City.
____
Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at
The post Costa Rica becomes a stopover for US deportees, minors and families, sparking human rights concerns appeared first on Associated Press.
