Costa Rica offers to 'serve as a bridge' for Indians deported by US

Some 200 undocumented immigrants from Central Asia and India will be flown from the US to Costa Rica, the third country in the region that has agreed to receive illegals booted out by the Trump administration.

The presidential office in San Jose, the Costa Rican capital, said the illegals from India and unnamed Central Asian countries will arrive on a commercial flight on Wednesday.

“Costa Rica agreed to collaborate with the US in the repatriation of 200 illegal immigrants to their country,” a president's office statement said. “These are people originating from...Central Asia and India.”

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Temporary centre for illegals

Earlier, Panama and Guatemala had agreed to receive illegal migrants from other countries deported from the United States.

Costa Rican authorities said the immigrants who arrive on Wednesday will be transported to a migrant care centre near the border with Panama before being sent to their respective countries.

It is, however, not clear how much time the illegals would have to spend in the centre before they are sent back to their countries.

According to a New York Times report, Costa Rica said its territory would “serve as a bridge” for the migrants’ return to their countries of origin, and that the repatriation process would be “fully funded by the US government".

UN agency to manage stay

The process would be facilitated under the supervision of the ‘International Organization for Migration’, a United Nations agency. Costa Rica also said the UN agency would be responsible for the care of the migrants during their stay in the country.

Panama received its first repatriation flight with 119 migrants last week. They included nationals from Afghanistan, China, India, Iran, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Turkey, Uzbekistan and Vietnam.

While travelling through Central America and the Caribbean earlier in February, Secretary of State Marco Rubio received assurances from several governments, including Panama’s and Costa Rica’s, that they were committed to working with the Donald Trump administration on migration issues, according to a New York Times report.

US’ aggressive stance

South and Central America is the home to most of the estimated 11 million undocumented migrants in the US. President Donald Trump took a hard line against illegal migrants during last year's election campaign, describing some as "monsters" and "animals".

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The US for long had difficulty deporting migrants from Africa and Asia due to the long distances involved and decisions by some of the countries to limit or reject American deportations flights.

Trump’s policy success

The decision to send the illegals to Panama, Guatemala and Costa Rica underscore how quickly the Trump administration is moving to convince countries in the region to accept migrants who are difficult to deport even though they are not citizens of these three countries.

El Salvador President Nayib Bukele has even offered to accept and detain suspected members of the Venezuelan gangs expelled from the US.