Costa Rican Foreign Minister Arnoldo André Tinoco should use his appearance before the Legislative Assembly on March 19, 2025, to disclose his migration agreement with the United States and confirm that third-country nationals deported from the United States can seek asylum in Costa Rica, Human Rights Watch said today.
A total of 200 people, including 80 children, arrived in Costa Rica on two deportation flights from the United States in February and are being held in a migration "reception facility" near the border with Panama. The group includes nationals of Afghanistan, China, Iran, Russia, Uzbekistan and other Central Asian countries, and Vietnam. The United States has also deported third-country nationals to Panama and, over the weekend, to El Salvador.
"Costa Rica should not be complicit in flagrant US abuses," said Michael Garcia Bochenek, senior children's rights counsel at Human Rights Watch. "Costa Rican authorities should expeditiously identify potential refugee claims and ensure that no one is returned to a place where they are at risk of serious harm."
US and Costa Rican authorities have claimed that all third-country nationals deported to Costa Rica want to return to their home countries. But five of them told Human Rights Watch that they and others consistently told US and Costa Rican officials that they had fled persecution and were seeking asylum.
Those interviewed described practices by US officials that would violate US law. A process known as "expedited removal" allows many people who arrive at regular border crossing points or who enter without inspection to be deported without seeing an immigration judge. But under US law, people who request asylum or say that they fear returning to their home countries must be interviewed by asylum officers. If the asylum officer finds that the person has not shown a credible fear of harm if returned, the person can request a hearing before an immigration judge.
A 23-year-old woman said she fled Iran facing persecution for converting to Christianity. She had an initial "credible fear" interview in mid-February with a US asylum officer. Immediately afterward, she said, US immigration agents told her she would be deported to Iran. The following week, they sent her to Costa Rica.
Another woman, 39, said that she sought asylum at the border crossing in Yuma, Arizona, in mid-February. US immigration agents allowed her and her 2-year-old son to enter. She received a credible fear interview, but as with the first woman, she said she was sent to Costa Rica without the opportunity to see an immigration judge.
In a third case, US authorities separated an extended family from Afghanistan, sending one woman to Panama, keeping her husband in the United States, and sending the woman's sister, brother-in-law, and 14-month-old nephew to Costa Rica. Both men had worked for the former Afghan government, putting the entire family at risk of Taliban reprisals. The family said that they repeatedly told US officials that they were seeking asylum but did not receive credible fear interviews before they were sent to Costa Rica.
In a fourth case, a Russian couple said that they and their 6-year-old son were sent to Costa Rica without seeing an asylum officer. The couple said they fled Russia after the man, an election worker, tried to expose irregularities in the country's 2024 election. "We asked for asylum many, many times to be sure that our intention could not be misunderstood, but the US officials totally ignored us," he said.
President Rodrigo Chaves and Immigration Director Omer Badilla each initially said that the country had accepted these third-country nationals only as a "bridge" to their home countries. A special order authorizes their entry for a 30-day period "for the sole purpose of continuing their journey to their countries of origin or other countries." The order makes no mention of their right to seek asylum or for extending their stay for reasons other than the need for additional time to arrange onward travel.
Costa Rica has a long history of providing safe haven to refugees. The Chaves government moved to restrict access to asylum in 2022. The courts invalidated some of these measures, and the government withdrew others in 2024. Costa Rica is obligated under international law to guarantee the right to seek asylum and to refrain from sending people directly or indirectly to countries where they would face torture or other serious harm.
Announcing the decision to accept the flights, President Chaves said: "We are helping the economically powerful brother to the north [the United States], who if they impose a tax in our free zones, it'll screw us." Chaves and other Costa Rican officials have said that the United States is covering the costs of the deported people's stay in Costa Rica.
US President Donald Trump and other US officials have repeatedly said that immigration enforcement is targeting people accused or convicted of serious crimes. But those deported to Costa Rica appear to have spent only a few weeks at most in the United States, and neither government has provided any indication that these people have been accused of a crime, other than the very minor offense of improper entry, in the United States or anywhere else.
The US government's deportation efforts derive a particular benefit from the removal of families with children. Federal anti-trafficking legislation and court orders limit the time children can be held in immigration detention, but the restrictions only apply to detention within the United States.
In Costa Rica, the families are held in a migrant reception center in Corredores canton, Puntarenas province. They have access to their mobile phones and can purchase minutes and data, but Costa Rican authorities hold their passports and other identity documents.
Although those interviewed expressed appreciation for the shelter, food, and generally welcoming attitude of the staff in the center, they described conditions that are not suitable for children. Parents said the very warm and humid climate left their children listless and with little appetite. The center provides no education or other structured activities for children and few recreational opportunities.
Costa Rica's ombuds office has criticized the conditions in the center.
The Legislative Assembly has summoned the foreign minister to the March 19 hearing to provide details on the agreement with the United States under which Costa Rica accepted the third-country nationals.
The foreign minister should make the agreement public, Human Rights Watch said.
In advance of the hearing, the Costa Rican government should clarify how it will respect people's right to seek asylum in Costa Rica and what efforts it will make to transfer back to the United States people who were denied the opportunity to present asylum claims to US authorities.
"There is no excuse for Costa Rica's failure to safeguard the rights and well-being of the children it is detaining following their deportation from the United States," Bochenek said.
