Migrant crisis at Panama-Costa Rica border

A HUMANITARIAN crisis is developing  at the Paso Canoas border with  Costa Rica as hundreds of Cuban migrants, who have  been  flooding into Panama,  try to enter Costa Rica to make their way northward to the US .

Costa Rica  has blocked their passage after the country’s president recently  out of a meeting of Central American Integration System ( Sica).because of members refusal to create a humanitarian  corridor  for migrants

Dozens of tents crowded with women and children have been set up in the open reports La Prensa.

A week ago, , Costa Rica decided to deport migrants entering their territory without proper documentation.

Some  800 new immigrants who arrived at Paso Canoas after December 18 have found the border closed., after the failed Sica meeting.

Local churches have lent their facilities to the arriving migrants , but no longer have the capacity to accommodate more reports La Prensa.

A similar situation exists in the Puerto Obaldia, Guna region, where dozens of immigrants continue to arrive daily.

The governor of the province of Chiriqui, Hugo Mendez, said that humanitarian assistance in the form of providing food and water to the migrants, until the situation is fixed.

“I have been informed that the Ministry of Health, the National Civil Protection System (SInaproc) and the State Border Service, are giving food aid, water and sanitation,” said the governor.

Since  November 14 Costa Rica has awarded nearly 8,000 transit visas to Cuban migrants who reached land just across the border with Panama. But the government announced pn Friday, December 18 would not give more visas because it had reached its capacity to house migrants and warned that those who were found to have crossed irregularly would be deported.

The crisis was ignited November 15 when Nicaragua prevented migrants from entering, citing security risks.