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updated by 8:00 a.m. CST each day
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Immigration Gets
Tough
Immigration director, Marco Badilla, has said that
Costa Rica is changing it's policy from 'open doors'
to 'selective acceptance'.
He is referring to number of applications for
residency to Costa Rica.
In addition to the U.S. and Canada, Costa Rica has
become a main receptor of foreigners looking for a
new place to start their life.
Costa Rica in recent years has been a open door for
many, especially Nicaraguans and Colombians, who are
fleeing domestic problems in their home country,
Badilla said that the strict application of
deportation and the requirement of work permits and
visas in some cases, are the controls the
immigration department can use to control it's
borders.
Currently, foreigners make up 10% of the population.
Immigration officials estimate about 270.000 persons
are in Costa Rica legally, while another 135.000 are
in the country illegally.
A large number of the illegals are Colombians, who
up until last year did not need a visa to enter
Costa Rica. Many entered and never left. Since the
visa requirements, the number of Colombians coming
to Costa Rica has been reduced by 50%.
In the past, those overstayed their visa period
would only need to pay a fine, however, now they
risk deportation.
The immigration department released numbers for this
year:
Foreigners with legal status: 270.000 (80% are
Nicaraguan Nationals
Estimated number of Illegals: 135.000
Colombians with refugee status: 7.326
Foreign students (youths and adults): 45.057
(36.821 are Nicarguans and 2.328 Colombians)
Work permits: 685
Number of Foreigners refused entry from Jan. 1 to
Dec 7 this year: 36.559
(34.944 were Nicaraguans and 225 Colombians)
Deportations: 4.610
(4.012 Nicaraguans and 258 Orientals)
62 New Weekly
Flights
This year, the airlines
connecting Costa Rica to the world increased their
weekly flights by 65, according to the Costa Rican
Board of Tourism (ICT in Spanish).
Also, five other airlines are flying to Costa Rica
now: US Airways, American West, BWIA, Air Canada and
Condor, a German carrier.
The airlines are developing strategies to bring more
visitors, such is the case of American Airlines,
which will connect Miami and Liberia - in the Costa
Rican north Pacific - starting next January 31.
Delta Airlines is already flying to Liberia,
therefore taking passengers close to the many
beaches and resorts in the area. United will start a
non-stop flight linking Washington and Juan
Santamaria International Airport on February 12,
2004.
This flight will be connected to others from London,
Paris, Brussels, Munich, Amsterdam, and Frankfurt.
Exodus to Nicaragua
Begins
Beginning last Friday, most Nicaraguans started
heading north for the holidays. The lines for a bus
at the Coca-Cola stations was long, most arriving in
the early evening on Friday waiting on the first of
many buses that would leave at 4am.
At border crossings at Peñas Blancas, officials
report heavy traffic and long lines for people to
have their passports stamped.
This is a normal situation this time of year.
Immigration officials give priority to the
international bus lines, while others pay "gavilanes"
as they are called, to speed up the process. Prices
range from a little as $10 to as much as $30 for the
help of gavilanes to push things through faster.
Many are using the crossing at Los Chiles which is
located east of Peñas Blancas, a border point where
many cross without the proper migratory controls.
Population Grows
Slowly
A United Nations study established that the
population of Costa Rica grows at about half the
average rate of the other Latin American nations.
The estimate is based on the historical behavior of
fertility and projections compared elsewhere in
Latin America.
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U.S.
Expanding Free Trade Talks
The Bush
administration said Friday it hopes to complete free
trade talks with Australia, Morocco and Costa Rica
next month and add the Dominican Republic by next
spring to the just-completed Central American Free
Trade Agreement.
Administration officials laid out an ambitious
agenda that will have Congress facing a number of
politically difficult trade votes in 2004, an
election year for lawmakers and the president.
"It is our intention to provide balanced,
high-quality agreements and encourage Congress to
bring these to successful votes," said Josette
Sheeran Shiner, the deputy U.S. trade
representative.
She and other members of U.S. Trade Representative
Robert Zoellick's staff provided a preview of next
year's work schedule on a day when Zoellick was
touring the Port of New Orleans to highlight the
benefits for the United States from the
just-negotiated Central American trade pact, CAFTA.
These officials rejected suggestions that the
administration might decide not to bring CAFTA up
for a vote next year because it wants to avoid
forcing Republicans to face a difficult vote on free
trade in an election year.
The AFL-CIO has promised to devote considerable
resources to defeating CAFTA because unions believe
the deal will open American workers to more unfair
foreign competition from low-wage countries with lax
labor standards.
The trade officials noted that President Bush won a
difficult battle in 2002 to obtain the authority to
negotiate the new trade deals; the Clinton
administration won passage of a bill that granted
permanent normal trade status to China in 2000; and
the North American Free Trade Agreement, which links
the United States, Mexico and Canada, was approved
in an election year, 1994.
Shiner said the administration planned to send
Congress the text of the CAFTA deal before lawmakers
return Jan. 20 from their holiday recess. The
agreement, completed Wednesday, would remove
virtually all trade barriers among the United States
and the Central American countries of Honduras,
Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaragua.
Costa Rica abruptly dropped out of the CAFTA talks
the day before the agreement was completed,
complaining about U.S. demands that it open its
telephone and insurance sectors to more foreign
competition.
Zoellick will resume talks with Costa Rica next week
hoping to add it quickly to the CAFTA deal before it
goes to Congress, Shiner said. She said the goal was
to start talks next month with the Dominican
Republic in the Caribbean with the goal of wrapping
up a CAFTA deal by spring.
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