Trump’s passage has reached a “visual ordeal”, says the Ombudsman in Costa Rica
Many immigrants arrived in Costa Rica without even knowing their whereabouts and were desperate to reach their relatives to inform them of their circumstances, according to a report issued on Friday by the Ombud -Secretary in Costa Rica, who sharply criticized the treatment of the deportees sent by the United States.
The report said that when 135 deportations reached an international airport outside the country’s capital, San Jose, “they expressed visual distress.”
She said that many people in the group, which included children, were unable to reach their documents, which complicates the process of checking family relationships. (It was not clear whether the American or Costa Rican authorities confiscated immigrant documents.)
The immigrants who sent to Costa Rica are the latest group of deportees, to a large extent from Asia and the Middle East, to send to Central America by the Trump administration, which says they crossed the American border illegally. More than half of those sent to Costa Rica are from Uzbekistan, China and Armenia, according to the Costa Rica government.
The Minister of Security in Costa Rica, Mario Zamora, opposed the claims of the Office of the Secretary of Grievances, stressing that his evaluation was based on a period of two hours after the immigrants fell, instead of reaching their final destination, which is a several hours of the capital.
“We do not agree with what was mentioned,” Mr. Zamora said in a statement. “It regrets that they did not accompany the migrants on their journey as south as they should.”
The grievance secretary report was also directed to the United States, noting that the immigrants said that they had not given any information about their transfer to Costa Rica, about the period they would take in the country or the “immigration procedures” they were under.
The report said: “The lack of this information increased distress and uncertainty from these individuals.”
Mr. Zamura, Minister of Security, said that the office should assess the case of migrants as soon as they were dominated in the facility in which the government plans to accommodate them until they are returned to their countries of origin, or given them asylum by another country. The attachment, which is called the Center for Temporary Interest for Immigrants, is located in the southern canton in Colves.
“UN employees were present, as well as the translators, who helped everyone understand the situation from the perspective of the International Immigration Law,” said Mr. Zamora.
The Office of the Secretary of Grievances said that immigrants were provided with “basic hygiene supplies for children, food (water bottle, sandwich, apples, pastries), formula milk, health towels, coloring books, coloring”, and that buses had toilets and air -air -conditioners.
But he also pointed out that the migrants were placed on buses for a trip for a period of six or seven hours after the trip, creating a “unfair” position, especially for children.
The report on the children said: “After more than four hours of air travel, they were immediately transferred to a second means of transportation,” the report on the children said. “It should be noted that their mothers indicated that they were unable to sleep properly for hours, and when riding the buses, they showed great hunger.”
Grievance Secretary also said that although some people “require emotional support” upon their arrival, immigrants have not been given medical or psychological reviews at that time.
Mr. Zamura said they were evaluated individually by Friday morning.
The report of the Secretary of Grievances said: “Watching the events described above must all push us to think.” “Costa Rica cannot avoid its historical tradition of respecting human rights and providing humanitarian assistance.”
A handful of countries in Central America made deals with the Trump administration to take the deportees from other countries.
Last week, Panama received three trips carrying more than 300 migrants from distant countries, including China and Iran, as it is not easy for the United States to deport people due to frozen, tense diplomatic ties or other obstacles.
The immigrants in Panama, some of whom were able to communicate with correspondents from the New York Times while they were in a hotel, said they had fled persecution in their countries and feared their lives if they re -restore them.
Costa Rica’s office is a separate government entity created to protect people’s rights in the country.