Q REPORTS (UNIVERSIDAD) – The morning sun forced us to squint, and the 32-degree Celsius temperature burned our skin, forcing us to seek shade. Meanwhile, a group of eight migrants, including a small child who was playing in the dirt, recounted what they had endured in the last seven months trying to reach the United States and how President Donald Trump’s policies forced them to turn back.
“We got off the bus here, at the shelter, because they told us that in order to continue to Panama we had to register. Now we want to shower and eat something, but we’ve been waiting for hours and they won’t let us in. The child hasn’t eaten anything since yesterday. We don’t want to stay, we want to return to our country and we have the money to go by bus,” a member of this group of migrants told UNIVERSIDAD on February 21.
After fifteen minutes of talking with them, the gates of the Temporary Migrant Care Center on the southern border (CATEM) opened and allowed them to pass. Almost immediately, a group of ten migrants left, half of them children. Half an hour later, almost in a caravan, another group of about twelve people, also with minors, left the facilities.
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Inside, many other people were waiting to leave the CATEM. Logically, to continue their journey!, the reader will think. But no: to leave Costa Rica for Panama on the return migration route, migrants must take a bus that leaves from the Care Center, located in the canton of Corredores, near the Panamanian border. The bus fare costs $60 per person and those who do not have the money, do not leave.
The departure of these migrants from the CATEM, where they at least have somewhere to sleep, bathe and cover their basic needs, is due to the fact that they had already been in for five days and were forced to leave the facilities.
Esteban Guadamuz (a fictitious name to protect his identity) said that he, his wife, son and a sick cousin had already been in Catem for five days. They had not left on the buses that transport migrants to the Temporary Migration Reception Station (ETRM) in Lajas Blancas, Panama, very close to the Darien Gap, because they did not have enough money.
“The Immigration Police told us that this is not a hotel to stay in, that they had already had us for several days, they gave us until one in the afternoon, although they are not letting us leave because there are journalists outside. But where are we going to get a ride? We have nothing and in Panama they are not letting us in. And it is because people of other nationalities came, such as Chinese, Afghans and others from Asia who were sent (deported) from the United States, they give them priority, they even give them boxes of food and not us, they are practically marginalizing us,” he said.
Guadamuz was referring to the group of 135 migrants who arrived at Catem that same day in the early hours of the morning, who were sent by the United States in an agreement with the Government of Costa Rica to serve as a bridge for the mass deportations of the Donald Trump Administration.
Among the people who arrived in the country are 9 Afghans, 17 Armenians, 6 from Azerbaijan, 26 Chinese, 8 from Georgia, 2 from Ghana, 4 from Jordan, 3 from Kazakhstan, 8 Russians, 5 from Iran, 7 Vietnamese, 10 from Turkey and 30 people from Uzbekistan.
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According to President Rodrigo Chaves, the United States asked him to receive these deported people, process them through the United States Embassy (with all expenses paid) and that, in the period of five or six weeks, they would be sent on flights to their home countries. Therefore, these migrants will remain confined in Catem during this period, since the US government finances all their expenses.
And although the tragedy has touched the lives of each of the people who are in migratory transit, there are conditions of international politics that make the return to their homes more dignified for some than for others, because while the majority do not have the resources to go by bus to Panama and after five days in Catem are forced to become homeless, others are guaranteed shelter and food until they reach their destinations.
The risk of being on the street
Roy Arias Cruz, Border Coordinator of the Jesuit Migrant Service of Costa Rica, indicated that the situation is becoming increasingly serious, since the majority of returning migrants arrive at the bottleneck called Canoas Pass on the southern border with Panama.
There is a government decree, published on January 6 in the official newspaper La Gaceta, which establishes that people can stay, for one time only, in Catem for up to five days; this can be extended if there is an extraordinary condition of vulnerability for 25 days. In addition, those who are in irregular migratory flow cannot work on their own account, nor with an employer.
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“The problem is that the people who are taken out are forced to resort to traffic networks, informal taxi drivers or anyone who can take them to Panama, but at some point in the sister country they can be detained and returned. Experts say that this will continue to grow and that it is very likely that dangerous alternative routes will be activated, such as Río Sereno in San Vito or that they will have to pass through the territory of the Ngäbe-Buglé Region; in the best of cases, managing with humanitarian aid organizations so that they are received again in Catem,” said Arias.
The projection, added the Border Coordinator of the Jesuit Service, is that these illegal networks will be strengthened, a phenomenon that is not exclusive to Costa Rica and Panama, but is occurring throughout the Americas and Europe, with conglomerates of people stranded at borders, organized criminal groups and questionable government responses.
An alternative that migrants with higher levels of vulnerability have, who are without resources and have no way to return to their countries, is to request refuge in Costa Rica; However, when they do this, they have to leave Catem immediately, leaving them unprotected, just as Sergio Jiménez (fictitious name to maintain confidentiality) did, a Venezuelan migrant who arrived in Costa Rica with his daughters and grandson.
“We left Colombia on January 21, we had already migrated from Venezuela. I do not recommend that crossing the Darién to anyone, much less if you have daughters, do not do it, because what we experienced there was horrible. I left my job and came with my daughter who is a minor, because she was determined to reach her partner, it is something I should not have done, we had to leave Catem,” he said.
Exhaustion is evident and visible on his face, hands and body, but more heartbreaking is the enormous scar that can be seen on his heart: with a broken voice, Don Sergio narrated how he, his daughters and grandson experienced the worst facet of human beings in the Darien jungle, an experience that marked them for life.
Luckily, while they were in Catem, friendly hands identified their case and understood that they could not leave them adrift, homeless, with a seven-month-old baby, and an operation of community leaders and humanitarian organizations began to find them shelter, food and support, so that they can sustain themselves while they apply for asylum. Going back makes no sense, they lost everything and without resources, it is impossible to return.
“We decided not to continue towards the United States because we had no support. When we arrived at Los Chiles, on the border with Nicaragua, we saw a large number of people being deported or returning voluntarily and they told me that if I reached Mexico I would be lucky, but if I managed to cross it would be even more so, because there are kidnapping cartels there, trafficking of girls and I was afraid for my daughters and especially for my grandson, there were so many things that I said ‘enough is enough’,” he added.
Roy Arias added that from the organizations what they see is improvisation on the part of the governments, despite the fact that there are official decrees in Costa Rica and Panama, in practice things are not so resolved, added to the pressure of US immigration policies.
“We are very concerned that there is no access to information, CATEM cannot be behind closed doors, there must be information on how it operates and that organizations can enter, evaluate and supervise the work that is being done,” said Arias.
Translated and adapted from SemanarioUniversidad.com. Read the original article (in Spanish) here.
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