Costa Rica beefs up border with Nicaragua after holidays

Costa Rican police arrested a man Saturday allegedly trying to bring 40 Nicaraguans into this country illegally to work in sugar cane fields in the northwestern province of Guanacaste, the Public Security Ministry said.

The man, with the last name Briceño, was driving with 66 people in his truck toward the town of Filadelfia, in Guanacaste. After questioning, police found that 40 of the passengers were undocumented workers and arrested them and Briceño who yesterday remained in detention at National Police´s Northern Command, according to a ministry press release.

The arrests came during a week when Costa Rican authorities have tightened border controls during an annual post-holiday exodus of migrants out of Nicaragua to Costa Rica. By yesterday, Immigration officers had turned away some 1,300 Nicaraguans, according to newswire EFE.