How Many Refugees Does
Costa Rica Have?
According to the
Dirección de Migración
(immigration service)
there are 7.820
refugees, while the UN
High Commissioner for
Refugees (UNHCR) says
11.630, a difference of
3.780.
Mario Zamora, the
director of Migración,
did not have a clear
answer, only to say that
there currently are 500
refugee claims in the
three month process, a
number again being
contradicted by UNHCR
who says the number is
more like 600 for a
process that can take up
to 16 months.
Although the exact
number of refugees is
unclear, one thing is
certain, the marjority
of the claims are by
Colombians, where the
immigration services
says 6.000 and UNHCR
says 8.500.
Zamora said the
difference in the
numbers is due to the
criteria applied by
UNHCR that differs from
that of his department.
One difference explained
by the UNHCR
representative in the
region, Jozef Merkx, is
that once a person
becomes a resident the
immigration service
stops listing the person
as a refugee, while for
UNHCR that person
continues to be
tabulated as a refugee.
Merkx accepted the fact
that the two systems are
not unified in their
counts, adding that the
two organizations have
agreed to meet to
digitize the files and
have an accurate number,
working jointly to to
reach a new agreement of
cooperation between the
United Nations
organization and the
Costa Rican government.
|
