Costa Rican police apprehend more undocumented migrants headed north

National Police officers on Sunday morning detained eight men from Nepal who are in the country without valid immigration documents.

Police in the Pacific province of Puntarenas observed the men traveling aboard a pickup truck near the port of Caldera and ordered the vehicle’s driver to stop. The passengers attempted to flee, but officers detained them.

The eight men, who said they are from Nepal, were taken to a local police station and given a medical examination and a background check.

This is the third group of Nepalese citizens recently detained in Costa Rica with irregular immigration statuses. According to authorities, the groups travel through Costa Rica along a transit route that begins in South America and ends in the United States.

Earlier this month, Puntarenas police detained 34 Nepalese citizens and two people from Bangladesh in two separate incidents.

On Sept. 10, police detained four Eritreans and four Somalis as they tried to cross the border into Nicaragua at the customs office in Peñas Blancas, in the northwestern province of Guanacaste.