The Nicaraguan authorities allowed on Saturday the entry of a group of its citizens to the border with Costa Rica, where they arrived after a long journey from Panama to return to their country of origin in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The nearly 100 Nicaraguans, who remained stranded for 18 hours on the border line and temporarily blocked other cargo trucks to enter to pressure the border control, agreed to undergo a medical check-up and a review by the General Directorate of Immigration to enter, explained one of them through social networks.
We decided not to let the trucks pass to put pressure on them and thus help us get in, said Ronny Bustos, a Nicaraguan who worked in Panama.
In addition to the health check-up, the Nicaraguan authorities reviewed if there were people on the list with pending problems with the law, or if they had participated in protests against the Government of President Daniel Ortega that broke out in April 2018, according to their testimonies.
THEY HAD NO PROBLEMS
The Costa Rican Migration Directorate confirmed that these Nicaraguans, about 100 people, remained on the border line, on the Nicaraguan side, awaiting entry to their country and that the Nicaraguan border remained blocked for the passage of people and freight transport.
The transfer of these Nicaraguan residents in Panama was carried out through extraordinary coordination with the Panamanian authorities and carried out the migration process correctly in Costa Rica, both for their entry through the south (from Panama) and their departure in the north (towards Nicaragua), adds Costa Rican official information.
The Costa Rican Ministry of Health carried out a review of the health status of all these people when they entered the country from Panama, and then continued on their way to the Nicaraguan border in buses escorted by the Police.
The Director of Immigration, Raquel Vargas, told on Friday that Costa Rica and Panama have active coordination for the transfer of Nicaraguans who want to return to their country because they are without work or in precarious economic conditions in Panama.
Vargas confirmed that until Friday several transfers had been made and that there had been no problem for Nicaraguans to enter their country.
NGO CRITICIZES THE ORTEGA GOVERNMENT
According to official data from Costa Rica, nearly 60,000 Nicaraguans have returned to their country since the start of the pandemic, and most of them have done so because of the unemployment the pandemic is causing.
On the other hand, about 14,000 Nicaraguans have been rejected when trying to enter Costa Rica irregularly through some point of the 309 kilometers of the land border.
The non-governmental Nicaraguan Center for Human Rights (Cenidh) maintained that the Ortega Government should under no circumstances prohibit Nicaraguans from entering their own country, because it violates the Constitution and international human rights standards by denying entry.
According to Cenidh, it is shameful that while all countries are striving to repatriate their nationals, here the authorities relegate them to the dangers of the elements, hunger, cold and the virus itself.
Such proceeding is criminal, perverse and constitutive of torture, not only for compatriots but also for their families, the agency warned in a statement before admission was authorized.
The Nicaraguan government did not respond to an inquiry as to why Nicaraguans were prevented from entering their own country.