Costa Rica in urgent appeal over fate of 1,000 Cubans

SAN JOS: Costa Rica issued an urgent call Saturday for fellow Central American countries to facilitate the flow of about 1,000 desperate Cubans trying to make it to the United States.

It came as Costa Rica said it would grant temporary visas to the Cubans as they head north after several days stranded there penniless and without visas, but it said Nicaragua would not let them in.

America has a longstanding policy of accepting Cubans who set foot on its soil, prompting the group to embark on an exhausting odyssey through South and Central America.

“The government of Costa Rica makes an urgent appeal to countries that have been involved in the illegal flow of Cubans to the United States to seek a joint solution to the flow of people,” a statement said.

The Cubans had made it as far as Costa Rica by Thursday, but many of them were too broke to pay farther passage north to Nicaragua, having exhausted their funds.

More than 100 of them ended up staying in streets close to Costa Rica’s migration office in the capital San Jose, and nearly 1,000 were stuck for three days in a southern border town with Panama, unable to pass through passport control because they didn’t have a visa.

The Costa Rican government said in a statement Saturday that it was giving the Cubans a week to pass through its territory to continue their journey north. — AFP