Trump Deportees Arrived in ‘Visible Distress,' Costa Rica's Ombudsman Says
Many migrants arrived in Costa Rica without even knowing where they were and were desperately seeking to reach their relatives to let them know their circumstances, according to a report released on Friday by Costa Rica's ombudsman that sharply criticized the treatment of deportees sent by the United States.
When the 135 deportees arrived at an international airport outside the country's capital, San José, many people 'expressed visible distress,' the report said.
Many people in the group, which included children, did not have access to their documents, complicating the process of verifying family relationships, it said. (It was not clear if the migrants' documents had been confiscated by American or Costa Rican authorities.)
The migrants sent to Costa Rica are the latest group of deportees, largely from Asia and the Middle East, to be sent to Central America by the Trump administration, which says they illegally crossed the U.S. border. More than half of those sent to Costa Rica are from Uzbekistan, China and Armenia, according to the Costa Rican government.
Costa Rica's security minister, Mario Zamora, disputed the ombudsman office's claims, asserting that its assessment was based on a two-hour period after the migrants landed, rather than when they reached their final destination, a facility several hours from the capital.
'We do not agree with what was stated,' Mr. Zamora said in a statement. 'And regret that they did not accompany the migrants on their journey south as they should have.'
The ombudsman's report was also directed at the United States, noting that the migrants said they had not been given any information about their transfer to Costa Rica, about how long they would be in the country or what 'migration procedures' they were subject to.
'The lack of this information increased the distress and uncertainty of these individuals,' the report said.
Mr. Zamora, the security minister, said the office should have assessed the migrants' condition once they were settled in the facility where the government plans to house them until they are repatriated to their countries of origin, or are granted asylum by another country. The facility, called the Temporary Attention Center for Migrants, lies in the southern canton of Corredores.
'United Nations personnel were present, as well as translators, who helped each individual understand the situation from the perspective of international migration law,' Mr. Zamora said.
The ombudsman's office said migrants had been provided with 'basic hygiene supplies for children, food (water bottle, sandwich, apple, and pastries), formula milk, sanitary towels, coloring books, and crayons,' and that the buses had restrooms and air-conditioning.
But it also pointed out that the migrants were placed on buses for a six- or seven-hour trip after the flight, creating an 'unjust' situation, especially for children.
'After more than four hours of air travel, they were immediately transferred to a second mode of transportation,'' the report said of the children. 'It should be noted that their mothers indicated they had been unable to sleep properly for hours, and upon boarding the buses, they showed great hunger.'
The ombudsman also said that while some people 'required emotional support' when they arrived, the migrants were not given medical or psychological evaluations then.
Mr. Zamora said they had all been individually evaluated by Friday morning.
'Witnessing the events described above should prompt us all to reflect,' the ombudsman's office report said. 'Costa Rica cannot stray from its historical tradition of respecting human rights and providing humanitarian assistance.'
A handful of countries in Central America have made deals with the Trump administration to take in deportees from other nations.
Last week, Panama received three flights carrying more than 300 migrants from faraway countries, including China and Iran, where it is not easy for the United States to deport people to because of frozen or frayed diplomatic relations or other obstacles.
Migrants in Panama, some of whom managed to communicate with reporters from The New York Times while being held in a hotel, said they had fled persecution in their countries and feared for their lives if they were to be repatriated.
The Costa Rican ombudsman's office is an independent government entity created to protect the rights of people in the country.
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