Costa Rica - IOM Deputy Director General, Ambassador Laura Thompson met with Costa Rican President Luis Guillermo Solis Rivera during an official visit to the Central American country.

The main objective of this week’s meeting with President Solis Rivera was to discuss migration and related issues of mutual interest and importance to IOM and the Government of Costa Rica, which hosts IOM’s Regional Office for North and Central America and the Caribbean, as well as the country’s integral migration policy 2013-2023.

Ambassador Thompson also met with Vice President, Ana Helena Chacón Echeverría; Minister of Foreign Affairs, Manuel González Sanz; President of the Supreme Court, Justice Zarella Villanueva Monge; Vice Minister of Interior, Carmen Maria Muñoz Quesada; and Minister of Environment and Energy, Edgar Gutiérrez Espeleta.

As special guest speaker at a high level conference on Migration Dynamics in a Globalized World, hosted by Universidad Latina of Costa Rica, Ambassador Thompson told the audience:  “The Twenty-First Century has so far shown to be a century of contradictions.  Although the world is indeed smaller, with increased communication, as well as increased free movement across border of goods, capital and services, we live in in an era with increased hindrance on the free movement of people.

The Deputy Director General added: “There is increased discrimination, xenophobia, exclusion and violation of human rights of migrants.  Migration and migrants are perceived in a negative light and many States are overwhelmed and do not have the capacity to face these facts and manage migration for the benefit of all.”