September 18th, 2015 (ICR News) Costa Rica’s Muslim community and human rights activists are planning a demonstration outside of the Presidential Palace (Casa Presidencial) on Tuesday to express their discontent with statements made by President Luis Guillermo Solis regarding Syrian refugees, CRHoy.com reports.
Demonstrators plan a peaceful protest against statements made by President Solis earlier this month in which the president stated that Syrian refugees would find Costa Rica an inhospitable place to seek refuge, which organizers describe as xenophobic, “fascist” and shameful.
“We do not agree with [the president’s] statements, in which he even said he didn’t want Costa Rica to be filled with ghettos,” one of the organizers told CRHoy.com.
“In Syria, Muslims coexist with Christians and atheists, this is not a question of religion but of human rights,” the organizer continued.
Several lawmakers in the country’s Legislative Assembly have also criticized the president’s comments in recent days, calling the comments “shameful” and “embarrassing,” especially since the president signed an amendment to the country’s constitution less than a month ago declaring the country to be a “multiethnic and multicultural” nation, to much fanfare.
Article 31 of the Constitution even states, “The territory of Costa Rica shall be a shelter for all those persecuted for political reasons (…).”
Earlier this month, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson said the country would be open to receiving Syrian refugees, and those who are granted refugee status would receive shelter, food, and assistance in finding employment.
Just days later, however, President Luis Guillermo Solis seemed to reject the idea, saying that Syrian refugees would not find in Costa Rica the sociological, religious or cultural shelter they would require to live normal lives.
“In regards to Syrian refugees, we are in a very different cultural area from their own, and there isn’t a community of reference that can give them welcome, we are a multicultural country with communities of very different origins, but the Syrians are not one of these communities, thus any group of people who come from Syria would not find the sociological, religious or cultural shelter they would require to live normal lives,” Solis said.
“I would rather maintain a very serious, responsible and articulated policy in handling immigrants or those asking for political asylum [rather] than playing with people who have very great needs and even greater expectations that would end up in a country that is not adequate and where they would be condemned to discrimination,” Solis continued. “I do not want an act of humanity to end with the construction of ghettos in Costa Rica.”
Despite the president’s statement, Costa Rica is already home to a small, but established community of Syrians, who this week asked the government to accept their families fleeing their war-torn country.
In addition, there is also a larger Muslim community in the country, including two Sunni mosques and cultural centers.
More than four million Syrians have fled their war-torn country so far this year, according to the UN High Commission for Refugees, sparking a serious immigration crisis in Europe.
Several other Latin American countries have offered to take in Syrian refugees in recent weeks, including Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, and Venezuela.