The United Nations Organization (UN) expressed its concern about the call for anti-immigration marches that have taken place recently in Costa Rica. It also points out that there is hate speech towards these populations, for which it called on Costa Rican society “to maintain its generous and noble will and thus ensure and defend the Human Rights of all people.”
The UN indications are made after receiving a letter addressed by the Costa Rican government announcing changes in immigration and refugee application policies. Last week, President Rodrigo Chaves reported on the actions given that “the political refugee regime has been used by groups that are not political refugees, but rather economic migrants.“
Firm reply by the Government
Foreign Minister Arnoldo André confirmed that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had sent a letter to the United Nations on this very subject. “Today (Thursday, November 17th) I signed a note addressed to a representative of the United Nations where we indicated that in the absence of international financial support, despite the multiple requests that the Government has made at international forums and because there is no decisive response neither of the countries of final destination nor of transit, Costa Rica had no alternative but to start being less generous and less easy to receive migrants in our territory”, the diplomat assured before the deputies of the International Affairs Commission.
$94 million since 2018
The UN asserted that since 2018 it has made contributions to Costa Rica for $94 million (approximately ¢58,000 million) for the care of migrants and refugee applicants. However, in the same line as what was expressed by the foreign minister, it accepts that despite the efforts, the UN agencies “have received insufficient support from the international community for attention to mixed movements of people.”
Representatives of the international organization are looking for a meeting with national authorities to find out about the change in the measures. The Government would announce this week the new measures to apply for refugee applications in Costa Rica.
