US refugee plan gets an upgrade

Costa Rica will host up to 200 applicants at a time

The Obama administration announced a broad expansion on Tuesday of a programme to let people fleeing violence in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras enter the US as refugees, and said Costa Rica agreed to temporarily shelter some of those with no other recourse.

Under the plan, Costa Rica will host up to 200 applicants deemed too vulnerable to remain in their homelands while the US Department of Homeland Security evaluates them for possible resettlement, which could take up to six months.

The US will also expand a programme for child refugees and allow some people to apply for refugee status in their home countries.

The steps, after months of criticism of President Barack Obama’s handling of the crisis, are modest in comparison to plans announced by Secretary of State John Kerry in January to open several refugee processing centres in the region. “Our current efforts to date have been insufficient to address the number of people who may have legitimate refugee claims,” Amy Pope, deputy homeland security adviser at Obama’s National Security Council, told a telephone briefing for reporters.

Many details, including how the programme would be financed or how many people might be eligible, were unavailable.

Advocates said they were pleased the administration was moving to provide the migrants with an alternative to staying home with their lives at risk.

‘Good direction’

“It’s really the way the programme should have been established from the start, but even belatedly we’re happy to see that this is the direction that they’re taking it,” said Bill Frelick, director of the refugee rights programme at Human Rights Watch.

Since October, nearly 80,000 children and families from the three countries have been apprehended at the US border with Mexico. The crisis has fuelled heated debate on the campaign trail over whether to welcome migrants fleeing violence or build a wall to keep them out.

The administration also will expand its Central American Minors programme, which allows those under 21 with a parent in the US legally to seek refugee status. The programme will now allow siblings, care givers or another parent to do so.