(Washington, DC) – The United States should offer to bring back and hear the asylum claims of approximately 200 third-country nationals, including children, who were wrongfully expelled to Costa Rica in February, Human Rights Watch said today. Costa Rica should also refuse future transfers of third-country nationals expelled from the US.
The 67-page report, “‘The Strategy Is to Break Us’: The US Expulsion of Third-Country Nationals to Costa Rica,” documents the US expulsions, which came after the US government held migrants and asylum seekers in abusive detention conditions – sometimes for weeks on end – while denying them due process and the right to seek asylum. The report also details Costa Rica’s months-long arbitrary detention of third-country nationals expelled from the US, as well as the mixed messages the Costa Rican government has given those third-country nationals.
“It’s reprehensible to dump families in a country they never chose, with no process and no regard for their safety,” said Michael Garcia Bochenek, senior children’s rights counsel at Human Rights Watch. “Costa Rica and the US should immediately let them seek asylum where they feel safe.”
Costa Rica accepted a total of 200 expelled asylum seekers and migrants, including 81 children ranging in age from 1 to 17, from the US. Their countries of origin included Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, China, Iran, Russia, Türkiye, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, and Yemen. Ninety-seven people have already returned to their home countries in circumstances that call into question whether their choices were truly voluntary, and six escaped from the Costa Rican migrant center where they were detained. Another 30 have applied for asylum in Costa Rica.
Neither government has made details of the expulsion agreement public. Announcing the decision to accept the two flights, Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves said: “We are helping the economically powerful brother to the north [the United States], who if they impose a tax in our free zones, it’ll screw us.” Chaves and other Costa Rican officials have said that the US is covering the costs of the expelled people’s stay in Costa Rica.
Costa Rican officials have said the country is serving as a “bridge” to people’s home countries. In February, Omer Badilla, Costa Rica’s deputy minister of the interior and director of its migration authority, said, “According to the information the government of the United States has provided to us, the vast majority, nearly all, have a desire to return to their countries of origin.”
But Human Rights Watch interviewed 36 people between March 1 and April 30 who said that they, along with many others sent to Costa Rica, would face serious risks to their lives or safety if sent back to their home countries. More than two months after their transfer to Costa Rica, just under half of the 200 third-country nationals expelled from the US have returned to their home countries. Those who have agreed to return did so after detention in the US in abusive conditions, forcible expulsions to and detention in Costa Rica, and mixed messages from Costa Rican officials about their options – all of which raises questions as to whether their decisions to return to their countries of origin were truly voluntary.
All but two of the people Human Rights Watch interviewed said they had no opportunity while in the US to explain why they feared return to their home countries. While US law allows for streamlined deportations in many cases, even under this process, known as “expedited removal,” people who ask for asylum or say they fear return to their home countries must receive an asylum screening, or “credible fear” interview.
US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents separated some families during these expulsions. In one case, CBP separated an extended family from Afghanistan, sending one woman to Panama, keeping her husband and 19-year-old brother in the US, and sending the woman’s sister, brother-in-law, and 14-month-old nephew to Costa Rica.
Costa Rican officials repeatedly informed people that their only options were to return to their home countries or to travel to another country that would accept them.
On March 26, Costa Rican officials notified them for the first time that they could request asylum in Costa Rica.
Human Rights Watch also heard from some people who said Costa Rican officials had asked them to list any countries they wanted to relocate to, raising expectations that they would be rapidly resettled to the country of their choice.
Until April 23, people were detained in the Temporary Migrant Reception Center (Centro de Atención Temporal de Migrantes), located in Puntarenas province some 300 kilometers from San José. The basis for their detention was not clear: none are accused of any crime, all entered Costa Rica with the permission of the government, and they have had valid temporary status in Costa Rica for the duration of their stay.
Costa Rican migration officials began to return people’s passports on April 23 and informed them that they could obtain a special humanitarian permit giving them 90 days to apply for asylum in Costa Rica or leave the country. They are now allowed to move freely within the country.
As a partial remedy for the harm caused by two months of arbitrary detention, Costa Rica should provide immediate work authorization, housing assistance, and, as needed, job training, language lessons, and job placement assistance to all third-country nationals who wish to seek asylum in the country, Human Rights Watch said.
“Costa Rica’s complicity in the US’s abusive expulsions has tarnished its proud history of welcoming refugees,” said Bochenek. “But it’s not too late to right this wrong – the government can provide meaningful redress to the people it accepted.”