Costa Rica - This week IOM provided training for 25 border guards from Costa Rica and Panama on identification, assistance, and protection of vulnerable migrants transiting through border areas.

The training is part of IOM’s Mesoamerica Regional Program, funded by the United States government, designed to strengthen the capacities of government officials and civil society to adequately assist and protect vulnerable migrants.

“An increasing number of women, unaccompanied minors, and applicants for refugee status, indigenous and extra-continental persons transit the region exposing themselves to human trafficking, smuggling, labour exploitation, sexual violence, extortion, kidnapping and generalized crime.  The authorities and those who work with this population need the tools to identify their particular needs and coordinate between neighbouring countries and institutions in order to provide appropriate assistance," said IOM Regional Programme Coordinator Sofia Salas.

The Paso Canoas border region between Costa Rica and Panama is characterized by the transit of over 200,000 migrants of different nationalities every year, mainly from Panama (48,054), Nicaragua (21,989), United States (9,501), El Salvador (7,631), and Venezuela, Honduras and Guatemala (about 4,000 from each country).

In the past several years migrants from the Caribbean (Cuba, Dominican Republic and Jamaica), Africa (South Africa, Ethiopia, Egypt and Morocco), and Asia (India and Nepal) have also crossed the Paso Canoas border, which is also one of the entry points for the Panamanian indigenous people Ngäbe-Buglé, who migrate each year to Costa Rica to work on the coffee harvest.

“The IOM training also offers an excellent opportunity for Costa Rican and Panamanian officials to work together and build their relationship in addressing an important regional issue of irregular migration," notes US State Department Narcotic Affairs Officer Andrea Doyle.  

In addition to organizing workshops at the national level and at borders, IOM is supporting community campaigns on migrants’ rights, the risks of irregular migration, the establishment of informational hubs in strategic municipalities and the strengthening of civil society support networks.

Participants in the training included the Chief of the Public Force of Paso Canoas, the Operations Manager of the Western Battalion of SENAFRONT, and representatives of the political section, the narcotics section (INL), and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) of the Embassy of the United States in Costa Rica.

For more information please contact

Sofia Salas

IOM’s Regional Office for Central America and the Caribbean in Costa Rica

Email: ssalas@iom.int

Tel. +506 2212-5304