Hundreds of thousands of migrants have come to Costa Rica from the south since January, many of them on their way to the USA. President Chaves now wants to release money to bring migrants to the north more quickly.
The government of Costa Rica wants to declare a state of emergency due to an increased number of migrants heading towards the USA. President Rodrigo Chaves announced that he would sign a decree soon. This is intended to release extraordinary financial resources to deal with the crisis.
Since January, more than 386,000 migrants have crossed the border from Panama to Costa Rica in the south, and many want to continue north to the USA. “We all know that there is a migration crisis across the American continent,” Chaves said. Central American Costa Rica is primarily a transit country.
Costa Rica threatens deportations
In September alone, more than 60,000 refugees arrived in Paso Canoas, a border town with its southwestern neighbor Panama, said Chaves. That corresponds to three times the city’s population. Last week there were clashes between migrants and the police in the city. “Anyone who comes here must respect our laws, the police and the communities through which they travel,” Chaves said. Anyone who behaves badly in the future will be deported. Security on migration routes should be increased.
In Paso Canoas, the Costa Rican authorities have now set up a transport service to take people directly to the Nicaraguan border, from where they can travel on to the USA. However, many migrants do not have the necessary $30. The new financial resources released by the state of emergency are intended to help here.
Escape from poverty and violence
Recently, Panama and Mexico also announced measures in view of the high number of migrants. According to the authorities in Panama, more than 350,000 people have crossed the life-threatening Darién jungle to enter Central America from Colombia in South America this year alone.
In Mexico, the last stop before the US border, the National Guard has increased controls to prevent migrants from boarding freight trains.
Most of the migrants come from Venezuela, but there are also migrants from Ecuador, Haiti, China and African countries. People are fleeing poverty, violence and political crises in their home countries.