Majority Of Refugees in
Costa Rica Are
Colombians
Costa Rica is home to
more than 6.500
Colombians who have been
granted refugee states
by the immigration
service, of which 100
are already facing
charges for committing
crimes in their new
country and unlikely
that the will be
deported.
It is estimated that
some 500.000 Colombians
have been forced to
leave their home country
and seek refuge in other
countries, running from
the threat of "guerilla"
(rebels).
Mario Zamora, director
de Migración, explained
that under the
International Criminal
Court rules refugee
status cannot be
withdrawn for common
crimes, only for acts
against humanity and war
crimes.
Zamora added that Costa
Rica is home to some
8.000 refugees from
various countries, 6.593
of which are from
Colombia.
As for the ministro de
Seguridad Pública,
Fernando Berrocal, Costa
Rica has seen a sharp
increase in the amount
of drug trafficking and
other crimes since Costa
Rica open the borders to
Colombian refugees in
2002.
Berrocal asks rhetorical
questions as to who
allowed the entry of the
some 12.000 Colombians
now in Costa Rica and
why there was no
investigation or
questions asked.
Rogelio Ramos, who
preceded Berrocal at
Seguridad, denies the
accusations by the
current minister and
assures that all was
done with complete
transparency.
"There was a person from
the Dirección de
Inteligencia y Seguridad
(DIS) assigned in
Colombia, who was there
to ensure that the
information given by the
refugee applicants was
trustworthy", said
Ramos.
Refugee status is given
to an individual's life
is threathned from
political, religous or
racial persecution.
The number of refugee
status given went from
179 to 1974 in 2001m
1844 in 2002 and 925 in
2003, according to
figures revealed by
Zamora.
The immigration director
added that in 2007 only
131 people were granted
refugee status.
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