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Published on Thursday, December 15, 2022
By the A.M. Costa Rica wire services Costa Rica,
one of the world’s great refuges for
people fleeing persecution, is tightening
its generous asylum policies in the face
of an overwhelmed system, according to a
report by the
Washington Post.
President Rodrigo Chaves, who took office in May, said Costa Rica’s system is being abused by economic migrants. The changes he decreed took effect this month.
Despite having only 5 million citizens, the Central American country trailed only the United States, Germany and Mexico in the number of asylum applications it received last year, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
Chaves first warned of the changes last month during an influx of Venezuelan migrants stranded by a change in U.S. border policy. But it is Nicaraguans who account for nearly nine out of 10 of the applicants.
“The (immigration agency) tells us that 90% or more of the people don’t qualify, so we are allowing the good cause of asylum to be abused by hundreds of thousands of people, it’s that easy,” Chaves said.
The president complained that Costa Rica has been spending $300 million a year to attend to the asylum seekers, draining resources for health and education, and international support has been insufficient.
The United Nations said that its International Organization for Migration and High Commissioner for Refugees, or UNHCR, had disbursed $94 million since 2018 to support migrants and asylum seekers in Costa Rica.
The exodus from neighboring Nicaragua, amid a brutal crackdown on popular protests there in 2018, swamped the asylum system long before Venezuelans became a visible presence in the streets of San Jose.
The arrival of Nicaraguans accelerated last year as President Daniel Ortega’s government cracked down on political opponents ahead of national elections. Ortega coasted to a fourth consecutive term after potential challengers were locked up. Arrests have continued this year, targeting critical nongovernmental organizations, press outlets and clergy.
In 2012, Costa Rica received barely 900 asylum applications. In 2018, that number reached nearly 28,000. And through September of this year, it was already more than 67,000.
Now there are more than 220,000 pending applications to resolve.
Aiming
to unclog the system, the
government has also created a
special immigration category for
people from Cuba, Nicaragua, and
Venezuela, nationals who make up
96% of the asylum seekers. They
would be eligible for a two-year
work permit in exchange for
dropping their asylum cases if
they weren’t really in danger. This,
of course, would also likely
make them ineligible for asylum
in other countries, including
the United States. Even
before Chaves decreed the
changes, there was evidence that
more Nicaraguans were opting to
migrate toward the United States
than had previously been seen.
Advocates believe the
lengthening wait for asylum in
Costa Rica and less favorable
job prospects were responsible. Under
Chaves’ reforms, asylum seekers
must enroll in the social
security system and no longer
receive an expedited work
permit, which had been
essentially automatic. Access to
legal employment can be critical
to being able to wait out the
lengthy asylum process. Asylum
seekers must now apply within a
month of entering Costa Rica,
and can’t leave until their case
is resolved, otherwise their
applications will be canceled.
Those crossing another country
to reach Costa Rica must justify
why they did not seek asylum in
that other nation. The
UNHCR in Costa Rica said it is
reviewing the changes, and
“advocates for using
internationally recognized
procedures so that the proper
authority evaluates case by case
and makes fair decisions,
following due process and in
full adherence to international
standards and the human rights
of asylum seekers.” In
the case of Nicaraguans, who
have a long history of seeking
safety in Costa Rica dating to
Nicaragua’s revolution in the
late 1970s and the Cold War’s
Contra conflict in the 1980s,
they are largely absorbed by an
existing diaspora. A large
informal settlement in San Jose
has been around for decades and
is essentially a Nicaraguan
neighborhood. Outside
the capital, many Nicaraguans
have chosen to stay closer to
their homeland in northern Costa
Rica, where they try to scratch
out a living in agriculture. The
changes have left asylum seekers
in Costa Rica unsure about the
way forward. “I
asked for asylum to have
stability, but honestly with
these changes you don’t know
what’s coming and if it’s better
to drop the case or not,” said
María López, a 35-year-old
Nicaraguan. “I’m going to wait
to see what happens with all of
this.” The
uncertainty extends to
organizations supporting asylum
seekers. Karina
Fonseca, national director of
the Jesuit Service for Migrants,
said “one of the most
complicated measures is not
being able to leave the country
while your case is being
processed. That has implications
because the profile of those
entering Costa Rica recently is
human rights activists,
defenders, professionals, people
who are going to see their
initiatives limited.” The
Washington Post is
a U.S. daily newspaper published
in Washington, D.C. The
newspaper has won the Pulitzer
Prize 65 times. How should Costa Rica support more newcomer immigrants in the country? We would like to know your thoughts on this story. Send your comments to news@amcostarica.com
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