First Cuban migrant flight to leave Costa Rica next week
The first flight for Cuban migrants stranded in Costa Rica will leave on January 12, the Central American country's foreign minister said on January 6.
A group of around 180 people will be able to leave on a flight to El Salvador on January 12 evening, they will then have ground transportation to the Guatemala-Mexico border, Manuel Gonzalez, Costa Rica's foreign minister said.
Subsequent flights from Costa Rica will depend on the success of this one.
The flow of migrants from Cuba has surged as the process of a detente between Washington and Havana stirs fears that preferential US asylum rights for Cubans may soon end.
Costa Rica's government stopped issuing transit visas to Cubans in December as Nicaragua, which is a close ally of Cuba, shut its borders to them in November.
Since then, the number of Cuban migrants stuck in limbo inside Costa Rica's northern border with Nicaragua has grown steadily. An estimated 8,000 Cubans are now stuck there.