A day after meeting with President Barack Obama and enjoying a rapturous welcome from thousands of people on the streets of Washington, Francis became the first pontiff to address a joint session of the Senate and the House of Representatives.
Vice Minister of the Interior Carmen Muñoz met with members of Costa Rica’s Muslim community, including Syrians, after a small demonstration took place outside Casa Presidencial on Tuesday urging the government to accept Syrians fleeing the civil war.
Those reaching Europe represent a small percentage of the 4 million Syrians who have fled into Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey and Iraq, making Syria the biggest single source of refugees in the world and the worst humanitarian emergency in more than four decades.
Flares of violence in Central America’s Northern Triangle have sparked a sudden rush of migrants seeking refugee status in Costa Rica, according to Immigration Administration Director Kathya Rodríguez. In the face of this rush, immigration officials have been working to reactivate its long-lauded refugee system after no refugee applications were granted in 2014.
Twelve-year-old Noemi Álvarez, from Ecuador, took her life at a shelter in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico in March 2014, several days after she was raped, allegedly by traffickers.
Eliminating customs duties between the two Northern Triangle countries would be a big step toward implementing the long-planned Central American Customs Union.
Costa Rican National Police officers conducting a routine patrol at 3 a.m. on Monday detained a group of 23 undocumented migrants – 19 of them from Nepal – while attempting to enter the country from Panama.
Flying migrants back to Asia or Africa cost the Costa Rican government $259,490 in 2013, according to Gladys Jiménez, acting director of the Immigration Administration.
Sexual and labor exploitation are the top two drivers of human trafficking in Costa Rica this year, but organ trafficking continues to concern authorities, according to Immigration Administration Director Kathya Rodriguez.
