Costa Rica Announces Departure of First Group of Cuban Emigrants

The government of Costa Rica scheduled for next Tuesday the departure of the first group of Cubans who are stranded from mid-November on its border with the intention of reaching the United States

According to an official note, 180 people will travel that day on a charter flight to El Salvador, to take a bus to Guatemala to continue to the border with Mexico and finally reach the northern nation by land.

The authorities based their selection on the arrival date to Costa Rica and the ability to pay for the trip, which in total will cost $ 535 because it includes transportation, food, taxes for getting into and out of the country and health insurance.

The statement said that the whole process will be ruled by the immigration legislation of each of the states en route (Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala and Mexico).

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) was responsible for managing a company to carry out the transfer in an orderly, safe and legal way, as it was agreed last December 28.

That day the Central American countries and IOM decided to grant an exceptional route for Cubans to continue their way to the United States.

According to the Costa Rican authorities, about 7,802 Cubans are stranded on its border with that purpose.

These people undertook the journey policies encouraged by Washington’s “Wet foot-dry foot” policy, the Parole program to encourage the defection of doctors and the Cuban Adjustment Act, among others, which encourage illegal emigration.

Such provisions do not match with the agreements reached between Havana and Washington on the matter, and illustrate the use of these topics as means to destabilize the island, in addition to the risks posed by this type of displacement, at the expense of mafias and smugglers.

Cuba calls for an end to these policies precisely because they encourage illegal, unsafe and disorderly migration.