AMERICA/COSTA RICA - World Migrants Day: “We must not remain indifferent”

Saturday, 24 September 2022 emigration human rights local churches

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World Migrants Day: “We must not remain indifferent”

San José (Agenzia Fides) - "We must not remain indifferent to a possible humanitarian crisis and must deal with what is happening in our country in a holistic way. To the already complex situation of Nicaraguan migration are added groups from other parts of the continent, among which the situation of Venezuelans is particularly critical, but also groups from other parts of the world who use our country as a transit point to the United States", said Msgr. Daniel Blanco Mendez, Auxiliary Bishop of San José, Executive Secretary of the Pastoral Care of Human Mobility, on the occasion of the World Day of Migrants and Refugees tomorrow, Sunday 25 September.
The Bishop quotes the message of Pope Francis: "Shaping the future with migrants and refugees also means recognizing and appreciating the contribution that each of them can make to this process" because "God's plan is essentially inclusive and places at the center the inhabitants of the existential peripheries, among whom there are many migrants and refugees, displaced persons and victims of human trafficking".
From January 1 to August 31 of this year, 102,067 people were registered in Panama entering Costa Rica, according to Msgr. Daniel Blanco Mendez. "The causes that lead to displacement, regardless of the country of origin, are manifold: political persecution, insecurity and violence, exclusion and poverty, but also the climate crisis and environmental disasters. Many become victims of human trafficking, of people traffickers who abuse them, of general crime and even the authorities".
The Bishop emphasizes that despite all these obvious aspects, the extent and criticality of the phenomenon have not yet been realized. Flows of migrants and refugees can be observed in different parts of the country: in the south, in the city of San José, in Ciudad Quesada, Los Chiles, Upala and La Cruz, with a growing presence in practically all the dioceses of Costa Rica where those affected often lived in conditions of risk and abandonment. "It is likely that a large number of these people will not be able to continue on their path and will have to remain in Costa Rica involuntarily and indefinitely, many because they have run out of money or lack the means, the obstacles to overcome, resulting from the border closures that prevent them from entering and transiting through other neighboring countries," explains the bishop in this regard.
In conclusion, Bishop Daniel Blanco Mendez reiterates that the Church's response must always be to provide resources and capacity to respond to this human drama through the organization of humanitarian assistance. "We also ask the Costa Rican society and in a special and respectful way the authorities of the Republic of the Republic and the institutions", the bishop continued, "to take care of this situation from the point of view of human rights and therefore ask them to provide the necessary to provide means to ensure their transit and stay in our country in a dignified manner". (SL) (Agenzia Fides, 24/9/2022)