Costa Rica announced Tuesday it will allow some of the approximately 200 migrants deported from the United States and held in detention in the Central American country to stay and move about freely for three months.
The move comes just days after human rights lawyers sued Costa Rica, alleging the government violated the rights of 81 migrant children by detaining them in a rural camp without any legal recourse, access to education or psychological services.
There was no immediate word how many migrants — who are mostly from Afghanistan, Russia, China, Pakistan, India and other countries — would be given the permits but the children are expected to be among those allowed to stay.
The government said the permits would be given “for humanitarian reasons” and would last for three months while the migrants seek asylum in Costa Rica or look for ways to leave the country.
The migrants were deported to Panama and Costa Rica this year as the Trump administration sought to ramp up deportations. What was once said to be a temporary stay in Central America stretched on for months, fueling criticisms by rights groups as many of the deportees expressed fear over returning to their own countries.
Critics warned the U.S. was exporting its deportation process and that Panama and Costa Rica were becoming a “black hole” for deportees.
Migrants, whose passports were previously confiscated and who were detained in a former factory turned migrant camp along the Panama-Costa Rica border, were told they could have their passports returned upon signing a document accepting the government’s conditions, said Silvia Serna Roman, one of the attorneys that filed the lawsuit at the United Nations.
“It’s a step in the right direction,” the lawyer said.
The Associated Press has repeatedly been denied access to the camp since the deportees arrived.
In the past, when reporters in 2023 visited the camp — where migrants once sought shelter during their migration north to the U.S. — families were sleeping on cardboard or in tents on the ground with little food.
Costa Rica’s move follows similar steps taken by Panama, which last month released deportees from detention amid lawsuits and criticism. However, Panamanian authorities bussed the migrants from detention facilities and dropped most of them off on the streets of Panama City to fend for themselves. Some were told they wouldn’t be able to seek asylum in the country, effectively leaving them in limbo.
Serna Roman said the group of lawyers with Global Strategic Litigation Council, who filed the lawsuit still have concerns. She said the migrants, despite the permits to move around, are prohibited from seeking work in Costa Rica, which would complicate their efforts to find a path forward.
“If you have children and you’re not allowed to work,” how can you survive, she said.
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