LA CRUZ, Guanacaste – Cuban migrants aiming for a new life in the United States but stranded in Costa Rica by a Nicaragua border firmly closed to them expressed mounting anger and desperation on Thursday.
U.S. President Barack Obama urged Americans Thursday to open their hearts to refugees in his Thanksgiving message to the nation, likening them to the pilgrims the holiday celebrates.
Nearly 3,000 Cuban migrants in Costa Rica still have no way to legally reach the United States after an emergency meeting of Central American foreign ministers in San Salvador ended Tuesday without an agreement.
Since the start of Syria's bloody civil war four years ago, a flood of refugees have fled the country in search of some place safer. Millions turned to neighboring countries like Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan. And a trickle are now appearing on the western side of the Atlantic, having decided that a trip across a foreign continent at Central American smugglers' hands is their best bet for starting a new life.
Travelers at Costa Rica’s Juan Santamaría International Airport waited in long lines Friday as immigration authorities reportedly tightened passport controls.
The five Syrian men arrested in Honduras and the Syrian woman arrested in Costa Rica this week are being treated as undocumented migrants. Authorities said there was no sign they had any ties to the Islamic State group or other extremist organizations.
Foreign Ministers of Mexico, Colombia, Ecuador, Cuba and member states of the Central American Integration System are scheduled to meet on Nov. 24 to discuss a “humanitarian corridor” proposed by Costa Rica, along with other possible solutions to the influx of Cuban migrants traveling illegally through the isthmus.
Colombia's Norte de Santander is where the "Bolivarian dream" was born. But with Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro's recent move to close the border and send Colombians back, its capital, Cúcuta, is beginning to feel the pain. The Tico Times takes a closer look.