 "Why Costa Rica has agreed to take Indian deportees from US")
Costa Rica has become the third Central American nation to show a willingness to accept migrants who had entered the United States illegally, after Panama and Guatemala. The country announced Monday (February 17) that it would receive migrants from other nations deported by the US. They will be subsequently sent back to their home countries.
A US flight carrying 200 migrants will land in Costa Rica this week. With this, it will become the second nation in Central America to receive deportees from the US after Panama.
Since returning to power last month, US President Donald Trump has launched a crackdown on immigration. Several US military planes carrying undocumented immigrants have been deported to their countries, including India.
Let’s take a closer look.
Deported Indians to be moved to Costa Rica
Costa Rica has agreed to receive deportees from various nationalities who had gone to the US illegally.
The Costa Rican government said on Monday that the first batch of deportees from Central Asia and India would arrive on a commercial flight on Wednesday afternoon.
“The Government of Costa Rica agreed to collaborate with the US in the repatriation of 200 illegal immigrants to their country. These are people originating from Central Asia and India,” the Costa Rican president’s office said in a statement, as per AFP.
The deportation flight will land at the main airport in the capital San José, following which the deportees from the US will be put up in a temporary migrant centre, close to the border with Panama.
Costa Rica said its territory would “serve as a bridge” for the return of migrants to their countries of origin, reported New York Times (NYT).
The Central American nation said the repatriation process would be “fully funded by the US government, under the supervision of the International Organization for Migration [IOM],” a United Nations agency.
IOM would take care of the migrants during their stay in Costa Rica.
The government, however, did not mention how many migrants the US would ultimately send. It also failed to clear how long these undocumented immigrants would have to stay in Costa Rica before being sent back to their home countries, as per NYT.
Did Panama and Guatemala get migrants?
Last week, Panama accepted three US flights carrying hundreds of deportees from Asia, West Asia and Africa.
Guatemala, which has also offered to receive undocumented migrants from the US, is yet to get a deportation flight.
During his tour of Central America and the Caribbean earlier this month, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio got assurances from several countries, including Guatemala, Panama and Costa Rica, that they would work with the Trump administration on migration issues.
Most of the approximately 11 million (1.1 crore) illegal immigrants in the US are originally from Latin America. Of these, about 725,000 are estimated to be Indian nationals.
Trump has vowed to deport “millions and millions” of migrants since assuming office on January 20, making a clampdown on immigration his administration’s top priority.
Deportees return to India
Hundreds of Indian deportees have already returned home from the US. The third deportation flight carrying 112 Indians landed in Punjab’s Amritsar on Sunday night.
The second US military plane with 117 deported Indians on board had arrived at Amritsar airport on Saturday. Of these, the majority were men, all of whom were reportedly handcuffed and shackled. Men from Punjab on the flight also alleged they were not allowed to wear turbans since their detention by US authorities and could wear them only after landing in Amritsar.
The first C-17 aircraft with 104 Indians deported from the US had landed in Amritsar on February 5. These Indian nationals were brought in handcuffs and ankle chains, leading to a huge outcry in Parliament over their alleged “dehumanisation”.
With inputs from agencies
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