2023-06-12 21:53:15
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The Government of the United States established with Costa Rica the beginning of the exploratory phase of a new program called “Safe Mobility” that allows both Nicaraguans and Venezuelans on Costa Rican soil to legally travel to the United States as of June 12. The trial months for this program will be six.
“This initiative will facilitate access to legal pathways to the United States and other countries, including expedited refugee processing and other humanitarian and employment pathways. During the exploratory phase, the Safe Mobility services will be limited to Nicaraguan and Venezuelan nationals, who can prove that they are physically present in Costa Rica as of the date of this announcement and who are currently registered as asylum seekers”, indicates the statement shared by the United States Department of State.
This announcement comes on the occasion of the first anniversary of the Los Angeles Declaration on Migration and Protection and in support of the strong bilateral partnership of the United States.
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It should be noted that people who enter Costa Rica after this announcement, that is, after June 12, will not be eligible for this initiative.
In the statement they indicate that in the first two months of the exploratory phase, only “eligible people will be contacted to schedule a selection appointment at a Safe Mobility office in Costa Rica to assess whether they are qualified candidates for the legal pathways to which United States or other countries.
Nicaraguans and Venezuelans present in Costa Rica and already registered with the United Nations Refugee Agency (Acnur) before June 12, 2023 are eligible. UNHCR will contact eligible individuals directly to schedule an appointment. Likewise, it is expected that in future phases the program will be open to persons of Nicaraguan and Venezuelan nationality present before the aforementioned date and who have not registered with UNHCR.
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After the first two months, eligible people who have entered Costa Rica before the date of this announcement must make an evaluation appointment online at the website MovilidadSegura.org.
They clarify that “not everyone who is eligible will qualify”, since the Movilidad Segura offices will review each application to determine eligibility and will contact the applicants.
Access to the Movilidad Segura offices is completely free and by appointment only. It is worth mentioning that the announcement comes days after the president of Costa Rica, Rodrigo Chaves, complained about the number of migrants that his country has.
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Chaves, in an interview with Andrés Oppenheimer on CNN Spanishonce again used the situation of migrants who have arrived in Costa Rican territory to complain and demand economic help from the international community.
Chaves mentioned that despite the fact that Costa Rica “is a country that was forged through various waves of migration in the 20th century (past), after the First World War, after the Spanish revolution, the crisis of (Augusto) Pinochet and (Salvador) Allende in Chile, Argentines, Uruguayans, Venezuelans and throughout our history the Nicaraguan people. We are 5.2 million inhabitants, and we estimate that there are one million immigrants not born in Costa Rica, that is, 20 percent of the population. We have done it from the heart, we have been an open country ”.
However, he did not hesitate to point out that currently the problem is “that we give these migrants school or education, social security, health and public safety, that is costing us, depending on who calculates, between 200 and 300 million dollars a year.” , in a country that is under an agreement with the International Monetary Fund that means a lot of fiscal discipline, the wave of migration of Venezuelans that are going to the United States through the Darien Gap and the situation is getting out of hand” .
He indicated that Costa Rica wants to continue being a global, responsible citizen, that is friendly, that protects people’s rights, but that “this is a global problem and not only we have to assume the bill, the countries receiving US immigration. The US and Canada should help us more because if we were to behave in a less generous way, it is very likely that the migration would go to them.
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