Cuban migrant crisis moving out of control

PANAMA’S  RED CROSS warned on  Christmas Eve  that the presence of hundreds of Cuban migrants on the border with Costa Rica will  be “out of control” if the country maintains the decision to block their path to its territory.

“If Costa Rica does not grant visas to Cubans stranded at Paso Canoas, we  must prepare,” said Victor Hall, director of the Panamanian Red Cross, in a telephone interview with the AFP news agency.

Hall said 40 Cubans arrived Thursday at Paso Canoas and  joined 602 others waiting for several days for  Costa Rican transit visas  to continue their way to the United States.

“We understood that another 2,000 Cubaens are crossing Panam to get to Paso Canoas,” he said

He added that about 12 Cuban migrants with problems of diabetes, kidney disease or high blood pressure had to be transferred to medical facilities in critical condition.

Others had to be treated in shelters for injuries they suffered during their long journey overland from Ecuador, the country where they arrive by air after leaving Cuba. Most migrants are  seeking to reach the United States.

Hall said the Red Cross is also concerned that the five temporary shelters arranged for migrants in Paso Canoas “are collapsing,”  with a shortage of blankets and mattresses and  the number of people exceeds the physical capacity of such spaces.

The demand for food and medical assistance is also outpacing the efforts of the government, the Catholic Church and other entities that provide them with humanitarian assistance.

Panamanian health authorities have been spraying the area, which is a place with high risk of dengue fever, a disease transmitted by the bite of the Aedes aegypti mosquito.

The crisis began with the Nicaraguan government’s  November decision to close the borders to Cubans  in mid-November, which left between 5,000 and 7,000 Cubans trapped in Costa Rica.

A week ago, the Costa Rican government was forced to close the borders to the flow of Cubans because OF the failure of other countries in the region to receive migrants.