U.S. Ambassador Says Humanitarian Aid Necessary to Assist Cuban Migrants

The fate of approximately four thousand Cuban migrants marooned in Costa Rica continues to hang in the balance as countries along their intended route to the United States decide on whether to allow them transit north to the U.S./Mexico border. Nicaragua and Guatemala have refused them passage through their countries and on Tuesday, the Government of Belize stated that it is unable to accommodate their passage at this time since necessary mechanisms to address their movement through the region are yet to be put in place.  While G.O.B. acknowledges that the immigration crisis is a problem that is characteristic of the region, U.S. Ambassador Carlos Moreno says that humanitarian aid should be provided to the stranded refugees.

Carlos Moreno

Carlos Moreno, U.S. Ambassador

“This is something, an issue that really concerns the entire region.  I’m hopeful; I would encourage a regional solution, particularly of the involved countries.  The United States is obviously concerned about more unauthorized migrants coming to the northern border of Mexico and coming into the United States.  But I think that the best approach right now is to look immediately at the situation on the Costa Rican/Nicaraguan border and also at the Panama/Costa Rican border and provide some kind of humanitarian assistance to those migrants.  That may involve tightening the flow from Ecuador in cooperation with Cuba but it’s something certainly that needs to be addressed.  I know that the proposal was put to the Belizean government.  We’ve been monitoring everything that has been requested of Belize and it went to the Cabinet this week and Belize deferred making a ruling until they got more information.  I believe they are going to meet again in January.  So we’ll await those results and we support involvement by the OAS and the IOM, the International Organization on Migration, and I’m hopeful that a reasonable and humanitarian solution will evolve from those efforts.”