Migrants turn to dangerous routes to avoid Nicaragua

REUTERS

Over 4,000 migrants (some most likely refugees) from Congo, Senegal, Togo, Haiti and Cuba are stuck in Costa Rica. They have been there for the last several months, perhaps over one year, as the Nicaraguan government has refused to allow them to cross the border and continue on their way north to the United States.

As a result, migrants are now taking to more dangerous sea routes in order to travel from Costa Rica to Honduras which would allow them to skip over Nicaraguan territory.

Just a few days ago, however, twenty-five migrants were abandoned by their smugglers on a remote Masapa beach on the Pacific coast. Local Nicaraguans came to their aid but Sandinista security forces sought to detain and deport the migrants.

They then took the migrants, some of them suffering from exhaustion and sunstroke, to El Tamarindo’s evangelist church. Within hours, however, Nicaraguan riot police arrived at the village with the intention of rounding up the Africans and taking them back to Costa Rica. They were initially confronted by local people who refused to allow them into the church. The police responded with baton charges, tear gas and by firing rubber bullets. Eventually, police stormed into the church, beating several of the migrants and then forcing them onto buses.

“One police officer threatened me and said I had no right to help the blacks,” said Ana Julia Jiménez, a resident of El Tamarindo.

“We are all Sandinistas [the ruling party led by Daniel Ortega], but after this, nobody here will vote for them,” added Marco Parrales, another local resident.

At least ten people have died trying to cross from Costa Rica into Nicaragua.

It would be really nice if we were in the midst of a national presidential campaign where candidates from our two political parties had the opportunity to engage each other and the people of the country in serious debate about the conditions in Mexico and Central America, along our southern border, and in the US where many refugees and migrants eventually settle.

I'm under no illusion, however, that even if migration comes up during the third debate, that the candidates will be able to string a couple of coherent thoughts together in order to demonstrate their understanding of the complexities of the challenges and the solutions to what our region is confronting.