By Wendy Anders

The Government of Costa Rica yesterday resumed deportations of Haitian citizens who are in the country without legal documents, reported the Spanish news service EFE.

The deportations had been suspended a month and a half ago due to the emergency situation in Haiti in the aftermath of Hurricane Mathew, said government officials.

A group of six Haitian citizens who don’t have their papers in order and did not report to the immigration office to fill out paperwork will be the first to be deported, according to a spokesman for the General Directorate of Migration and Immigration (DGME).

The deportees are Bertho, Vary, Francisque, Ariste, Stivel and Lormilsaint, who were identified as having irregular immigration status, and will be accompanied by migration officers back to Haiti from November 15 – 19, according to the DGME.

These deportations follow ten others carried out in August and September of this year.

The six Haitians who will be deported have been in the Temporary Apprehension Center for Foreigners in Irregular Condition (CATECI) in Hatillo, a southern San José district, since the end of September.

Officials are awaiting “the process of verification of their identity, and a final review in the immigration systems and the International Police (Interpol) system, to proceed with the deportation,” said EFE.