In response to the burgeoning migration crisis, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) launched an emergency appeal in for 642,202 Swiss francs (CHF) to reach 5,000 vulnerable people in Costa Rica in January 2016. However, following a surge in migration in neighbouring Panama, the emergency appeal was revised in May 2016 to include Panama, reach 1,350 additional beneficiaries and extended for six additional months to November 2016. Meanwhile, the escalating migrant crisis in Honduras has prompted the Honduran Red Cross to consider the need for Disaster Relief Emergency Fund (DREF) funding. Consequently, due to the heightened need for funding and the current budget shortfall, this information bulletin is being issued to bring much-needed attention to the ongoing migrant crisis in the region and the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement actions.
The Situation
In November 2015, more than 1,000 Cuban nationals were reported to be camped out at the Paso Canoas border crossing with Panama. In view of requirements for entering the country and the fact that these migrants did not meet them, a significant amount of people began to congregate in this border community, taking to living in the streets while they waited for a solution for their immigration status. The Costa Rican government issued permits allowing migrants to enter the country and continue on their way to the United States. Thousands of migrants benefitted; however, despite these permits, migrants were unable to enter Nicaraguan territory as they failed to meet Nicaraguan immigration requirements. By March 2016, some 8,000 migrants were in Costa Rican territory.
The solution for Cuban nationals came several months later (April to May 2016) after an air bridge between Costa Rica and El Salvador was established; nevertheless, the various needs identified at the onset of this situation and to date led to an immediate humanitarian intervention by the CRRC, which was later joined by other government institutions, churches and organized communities, among others. All of these organizations jointly supported the setting up of 37 collective centres, addressed food, water and sanitation needs, and promoted health, and 8,000 people were airlifted.
As of May 2016, reports indicated the existence of 43 collective centres, 33 communities hosting migrants, 15 active municipal emergency committees, more than 500 volunteers and more than USD$5 million in operating and administrative maintenance executed by Costa Rica’s Emergency Commission. Panama also faced a rapid build-up of Cuban migrants in May 2016 when the Costa Rican government stopped issuing transit permits to migrants, which forced 4,000 migrants that had congregated in Paso Canoas to live in hotels, apartments and houses; this situation continued until late June 2016 when migrants were able to take flights out or find informal routes to travel across the remaining Central American countries.
After the departure of most of the Cuban nationals in March 2016, a group of Haitian and people from various countries in Asia and Africa were reported at the border in Paso Canoas and Peñas Blancas; most of those from outside the continent were from Burkina Faso, Congo, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Senegal and Somalia, among others. However, they were also lacking visas to enter the country, and they started congregating in surrounding streets as they were unable to continue because they were not authorized to enter the country and unable to turn back because Panamanian authorities would not allow them to return; those that managed to evade police started gathering near the Peñas Blancas border crossing with Nicaragua, where they were living in unsuitable conditions in terms of housing, drinking water, food and hygiene.
On 12 April 2016, migrants were transported back to the Paso Canoas border crossing with Panama by Costa Rica’s Security Ministry vehicles, which exacerbated the problem given the precarious conditions and the amount of people involved; this led to several institutions deciding to open a "humanitarian aid post" in order to assess basic food, health and hygiene conditions. This post was later handed to the Costa Rican Red Cross to manage and operate it.
By September 2016, thousands of migrants were en-route to North America, many of them having started their journeys in Brazil and later travelling through Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico. Migrants encounter different sets of problems and different housing, security and health conditions in each country. Although there are no exact numbers, assessments conducted by National Societies and data provided by the involved governments' Immigration Directorates indicate that there are currently 3,000 migrants at the Panamanian-Colombian border, 4,000 in Costa Rica and 2,000 in Honduras.
Immigration authorities in all of the involved countries are doing everything within their power to meet the demand for immigration procedures, and emergency authorities are attempting to meet the humanitarian needs arising in each country's meeting points or points of passage.