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Cuban migrants to fly out of Costa Rica next week

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A first group of 180 Cuban migrants stranded in Costa Rica is to fly out of the country next Tuesday to continue their journey through Central America and Mexico to new lives in the US, officials said.

If the trip is deemed a success, most if not all the 7,800 Cubans stuck in Costa Rica will be following, under an agreement struck last week between several Central American nations.

Costa Rican Foreign Minister Manuel Gonzalez told a news conference on Wednesday that "the beginning of the pilot plan will take place on January 12 with a second flight planned for a week later.

Costa Rica, in coordination with the International Organization for Migration, scrambled during the height of Central America's tourist high season to find a charter flight able to take the migrants.

The need to use a plane resulted from neighboring Nicaragua's decision mid-November to close its border to all US-bound Cubans. Managua is an ally to Havana's government.

Gonzalez said the 180 Cubans will fly out of the northern city of Liberia, close to the Nicaraguan border, to El Salvador, where they will take buses to cross through to Guatemala to the Mexican border.

The selected Cubans are to pay the $535 cost of the air-and-land journey themselves, and will have to find their own way across Mexico to the US border.

America has a policy dating back to the Cold War to accept any Cuban who sets foot on its soil. The number of migrants attempting the trip jumped last year, in the wake of a December 2014 thaw announced by Havana and Washington.

Stuck with the problem of a growing number of Cubans, Costa Rica on December 19 stopped giving any more arrivals visas and threatened to deport illegal migrants back to Cuba.

As a result, nearly 1,000 more Cuban migrants are stranded in Panama, unable to cross north over the border into Costa Rica.

A first group of 180 Cuban migrants stranded in Costa Rica is to fly out of the country next Tuesday to continue their journey through Central America and Mexico to new lives in the US, officials said.

If the trip is deemed a success, most if not all the 7,800 Cubans stuck in Costa Rica will be following, under an agreement struck last week between several Central American nations.

Costa Rican Foreign Minister Manuel Gonzalez told a news conference on Wednesday that “the beginning of the pilot plan will take place on January 12 with a second flight planned for a week later.

Costa Rica, in coordination with the International Organization for Migration, scrambled during the height of Central America’s tourist high season to find a charter flight able to take the migrants.

The need to use a plane resulted from neighboring Nicaragua’s decision mid-November to close its border to all US-bound Cubans. Managua is an ally to Havana’s government.

Gonzalez said the 180 Cubans will fly out of the northern city of Liberia, close to the Nicaraguan border, to El Salvador, where they will take buses to cross through to Guatemala to the Mexican border.

The selected Cubans are to pay the $535 cost of the air-and-land journey themselves, and will have to find their own way across Mexico to the US border.

America has a policy dating back to the Cold War to accept any Cuban who sets foot on its soil. The number of migrants attempting the trip jumped last year, in the wake of a December 2014 thaw announced by Havana and Washington.

Stuck with the problem of a growing number of Cubans, Costa Rica on December 19 stopped giving any more arrivals visas and threatened to deport illegal migrants back to Cuba.

As a result, nearly 1,000 more Cuban migrants are stranded in Panama, unable to cross north over the border into Costa Rica.

AFP
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