Costa Rica says will accept Indians, Central Asians deported by US

The number of Indians being sent to Costa Rica, or whether their nationality had been confirmed, could not immediately be ascertained.

The Central American nation of Costa Rica has said it will receive illegal migrants from other countries who are being deported by the United States, with an official statement saying the first flight with 200 people from Central Asia and India is expected on Wednesday.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio (left) with Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves in San Jose, Costa Rica earlier this month. (REUTERS)

The statement issued by the Costa Rican president’s office on Monday makes it the third country in Central America, after Panama and Guatemala, to collaborate with the US to repatriate deported migrants. The statement said the migrants sent from the US will remain in Costa Rica till they can be sent back to their countries.

There was no response from the external affairs ministry to a request for comment on the matter. The number of Indians being sent to Costa Rica, or whether their nationality had been confirmed, could not immediately be ascertained.

Recent reports have said that the US is sending undocumented migrants from several Asian countries, whose governments have refused to accept them, to Central American nations such as Panama. This marks an escalation of the Trump administration’s deportation campaign.

India and other countries have emphasised that they will only accept illegal migrants deported from the US once their nationality has been verified.

The statement from Costa Rica’s presidency said the government had agreed to collaborate with the US in the “repatriation of 200 illegal immigrants to their country”.

“These are people originating from countries in Central Asia and India,” said the statement, which was in Spanish. “The first group will arrive in our country on a commercial flight this Wednesday afternoon.”

The statement added, “Costa Rica will serve as a bridge for them to reach their countries of origin.”

The people deported by the US will be transferred from Juan Santamaria International Airport to Catem in the canton of Corredores. The process is “completely financed by the United States government, under the supervision of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), which will be the agency that will take care of migrants during their stay” in Costa Rica, the statement said.

Catem is the Spanish acronym for a temporary migrant care centre established by Costa Rica near the border with Panama.

The US has so far deported a total of 332 Indians on three military flights since February 5. After the first flight brought back 104 people, officials had said that the US was in the process of sending back close to 600 illegal migrants to India.

After images of men in handcuffs and shackles brought back on the first flight on February 5 triggered a nationwide outcry, the US has timed its flights in such a manner that they arrive in India late at night or early in the morning in order to evade the media glare, people familiar with the matter said on condition of anonymity.

Unlike the first flight, women and children on the subsequent two flights were not restrained their journey of more than 40 hours, the people said.