Trump Migrant crackdown: After Panama, Costa Rica offers ‘bridge’ for Indians deported by US

Central American nation Costa Rica has announced plans to welcome Indian and Central Asian migrants who are being deported by the Donald Trump government. The deportees will be kept in a detention centre in Costa Rica till they leave for their country of origin, the Latin American country’s administration announced.

Till now, India has received three military planes of illegal Indian migrants as they were deported from US.

Costa Rica to House Indian Deportees Till They Leave

Costa Rica announced on Monday that it would receive a flight this week from the United States carrying 200 migrants from Central Asia and India, making it the second nation in Central America to accept deportees from faraway countries who had crossed illegally into the United States.

Last week, Panama received three US deportation flights, carrying migrants from countries in Asia, the Middle East and Africa.

While traveling through Central America and the Caribbean earlier in February, Secretary of State Marco Rubio received assurances from several governments, including Panama’s and Costa Rica’s, that they were committed to working with the Donald Trump administration on migration issues, according to New York Times report.

Costa Rica to ‘Serve as a Bridge’ for Deportees

According to a New York Times report, Costa Rica said its territory would “serve as a bridge” for the migrants’ return to their countries of origin, and that the repatriation process would be “fully funded by the US government”.

The process would be facilitated under the supervision of the ‘International Organization for Migration’, a United Nations agency.

Costa Rica also said the UN agency would be responsible for the care of the migrants during their stay in the country.

Panama has described a similar process for the deportees sent there by the United States.

After arriving in the main airport serving San José, the capital, the deportees will be transported to a migrant shelter in the canton of Corredores, in the country’s south, Costa Rica said.

Costa Rican officials did not confirm how many migrants they expected US to ultimately send, or how long they would remain in Costa Rica before being sent to their countries of origin.

According to reports, Costa Rica was grappling with how to cope with thousands of migrants passing through on their way to the US border.

Costa Rican shelters for deportees were crowded with people who, in many cases, had passed through the perilous Darién Gap, between Colombia and Panama, to reach Latin America.