United Nations Country Team Costa Rica News Release – The National Commission for Risk Prevention and Emergency Care Costa Rica (CNE in its Spanish acronym) reported 400 Cuban migrants in Peñas Blancas border facility and 1,320 migrants in 7 shelters. Highlights follow:

• As of 19 November at 12pm, the government reported that the situation was under control and had sufficient funding and supplies.
• UNCT has had a series of meeting with the government and Costa Rica Red Cross.

Situation Overview

The border with Nicaragua is still closed, while there is a continuous inflow of Cuban migrants to Costa Rica from the border with Panama.

The government released a statement today confirming that CNE has the operational structure which guarantees the continuous supply of goods to the regional and local warehouses. CNE also stated that it has the fund of ₡4,000,000,000 (approximately $7,525,440) to meet the urgent needs in case another emergency situation emerges.

High level government commission including Mr. Carlos Alvarado (Minister of Human Development and Social Inclusion) and Ms. Ana Gabriela Zuñiga (Vice Minister of the Presidency) is present in the border municipality of La Cruz, visiting the shelters and assessing the local needs.

During the meeting the Central American Integration System (SICA), the foreign ministers of the region agreed to hold a meeting of Council of Foreign Affairs of SICA in El Salvador on Nov 24 to address the situation of Cuban migrants in the region.

• Number of Cuban Migrants in Shelters (La Cruz and Liberia, province of Guanacaste): According to CNE, as of 12:00pm November 18, there were 1320 Cubans in 7 shelters:
• Number of Cuban Migrants in Peñas Blancas (border with Nicaragua): According to CNE, there were 400 Cubans in the border facility.
• Number of Cuban Migrants in Paso Canoas (border with Panama): According to a local report by national television station Teletica, 130 Cuban migrants obtained the temporary visa on Wednesday, November 18. This visa allows Cuban migrants to stay in Costa Rica for seven days.

The Ministry of Communications reported that 120 additional temporary visas were issued today.

The Vatican Highlights the Need for Humanitarian Relief

Vatican News Agency Release – San José de Costa Rica – As part of the ordinary meeting of the “Secretariado Episcopal de América Central “, which takes place in November from 23 to 27 in San José de Costa Rica with the slogan “A single network, a single region”, the Bishops of Central America met with the President of the Republic of Costa Rica, Luis Guillermo Solis, to address the plight of Cuban immigrants. More than 3,000 Cubans in fact, during their journey to the United States, have been blocked for over a week at the border between Costa Rica and Nicaragua, as Nicaragua does not allow them entry into the country, not even for transit.

The Government of Costa Rica and the Bishops of SEDAC agreed in defining this situation “a humanitarian issue“, demanding therefore a “humanitarian solution” and expecting some decision is taken during the meeting of the Prime Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Central America, which is taking place in El Salvador.According to information sent to Fides, Cardinal Leopoldo Brenes, Archbishop of Managua, pointed out that this problem is not only for this country, but of the entire Central American region, and dialogue is the only way to find a solution.

The agenda of the meeting scheduled by SEDAC will analyze the social and ecclesiastic life of each Central American country. In addition to the Bishops there will also be Family, Youth, Vocations, social pastoral and social communications Commissions.