Costa Rica-Cuba Meeting Yields No Solutions on Stranded Migrants

By Kausha Luna on December 21, 2015

Costa Rican President Luis Guillermo Solis and his Cuban counterpart, Raul Castro, agreed last week that it is urgent to find a solution to the approximately 5,000 U.S.-bound Cubans stranded in Costa Rica due to Nicaragua's refusal to let them pass through on their way north.

However, it appears that the meeting between the two heads of state did not produce an actual solution.

According to a brief Cuban press release, Raul Castro reiterated during the meeting that the U.S. policies – the Cuban Adjustment Act and the "wet foot, dry foot'' policy that stems from it – encourage illegal emigration, threatening the integrity of migrants. Castro added that these policies are discriminatory to other countries in the region and create serious problems for countries, including the United States, whose government has been responsible for situation that has been created. Castro also reiterated that those Cubans who find themselves in Costa Rica and wish to return to Cuba have every right to do so, as established by Cuba's immigration law.

Ultimately both countries indicated ''an adequate solution that takes into consideration the well-being of stranded Cuban citizens and contributes to guarantee legal, secure, and ordered migration'' is necessary. However, no such solution came from the meeting.

During his visit to Cuba, the Costa Rican president also relayed his frustration during a news conference in which he said, ''It’s up to the U.S. to administer its laws and it's up to us, the victims of these laws, to administer them too," referring to Costa Rica's obligation to care of the U.S.-bound Cubans.
 

Topics: Cuba