The migrants deported by the United States to Costa Rica who will be released from a refuge for a court order

Mohammad Know Asad, Afghan migrant — Photo foot, The Afghan Mohammad Knowledge Asad is one of the migrants sent to the Temporary Attention Center in Costa Rica.

- Author, Vanessa Buschschlüter
- Author's title, BBC News
June 25, 2025

A court in Costa Rica ordered the release of migrants who have remained for months in a shelter, after being deported by the authorities of the United States.

Human Rights Defense Organizations warned that migrants, which come from countries such as Afghanistan, China, Ghana, India and Vietnam, were transferred to a shelter from which they were not allowed to leave without supervision.

Since their expulsion from the United States, some of the 200 deportees voluntarily returned to their countries of origin, but according to official figures at least 28 remain in the Temporary Migrant Care Center (CATEM), 360 kilometers south of the capital.

The immigration authorities of Costa Rica have two weeks to define the status of migrants and release them from the shelter, where some are still housed, according to the judicial decision.

The migrants arrived in the capital, San José, after the Costa Rican president, Rodrigo Chaves, agreed to “collaborate” with the government of President Donald Trump and agreed to receive a group of migrants, in the midst of the mass deportation policy implemented by the White House.

The deportees, including more than 80 children, arrived on flights from the United States shortly after the agreement between both governments in February was signed.

The US authorities evaluated the files of migrants and ruled out that they had links with terrorist groups, the Costa Rican immigration authorities reported.

Temporary migrant care center — Photo foot, At least 28 migrants are still in the Temporary Migrant Care Center, south of San José.

Arbitrary detention

A report of human rights organizations indicated that they were arbitrarily and illegal retained for more than 60 days, without access to legal assistance or information in their respective languages.

Human rights groups denounced that migrants were not allowed to leave the facilities without supervision.

Given the growing criticism, the Costa Rican immigration authorities granted the deportees a special temporal status in April and allowed them to circulate freely outside the shelter where they were held.

In the ruling on Tuesday, four of the seven judges declared that the deportees of the deportees violated their rights and called the Government to determine the type of state assistance that migrants may require.

Among the deficiencies found by the Court are the deprivation of freedom of movement without a previous individual resolution, the restriction of their communications with the outside and the lack of information about the possibility of requesting the refugee status.

An Afghan woman told the AFP agency from the CATEM that she had fled her country because she wanted to study and work, without being forced to submit to a man's company to leave.

In addition, she denounced that if they forced her to return to Afghanistan, the Taliban would “kill.”

Photo foot, The president of Costa Rica, Rodrigo Chaves, signed an agreement with the Trump government to receive deported migrants.

Deported to “bridge countries”

The Court determined that the Government acted within its powers upon reaching an agreement with Trump to accept deported migrants from third countries.

Costa Rica was the third country in Central America to reach a similar agreement with the White House, after Panama and El Salvador.

The deportation of migrants to third countries, also called “bridge countries”, has been challenged both in the United States and Costa Rica.

However, the United States Supreme Court revoked on Monday an order of a lower court that demanded that migrants have the opportunity to challenge deportations, since they could be at risk of torture, persecution or death in the country to which they were deported.

In addition to Costa Rica, Trump sent 300 deported to Panama, mostly Asians, already 252 Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador, accused of being members of the Criminal Band Train of Aragua without presenting evidence, and who remain imprisoned in the Center for Confinement of Terrorism (CECOT), a maximum security megacárcel built to recruit gang members.

In February, when deportation flights to Central America began, the governments of Panama and Costa Rica said that these operations were financed by the United States and that they were carried out under the supervision of the International Migration Organization, which belongs to the United Nations.

Migrants in Hotel de Panama — Photo foot, Migrants who were deported to Panama in February were held in a hotel and asked for help to leave.

Move responsibility

Muzaffar Chishti, principal researcher at the Center for Institute of Migration Policy in the United States, told BBC Mundo in February that by sending these people to other countries, the United States fought from their responsibility with deportees.

“Once you take those people out, the laws, the constitution and the US regulations no longer apply. If those people had any right under US law, when they arrived in Panama that disappears,” he said.

The expert explained that probably one of Washington's main reasons to deport these migrants to Central America was that they

Therefore, his expulsion required diplomatic negotiations with these governments.

Juan Navarrete, a lawyer specialized in human rights that works on the immigration issue with Amnesty International, told BBC Mundo that many of these people probably required international protection because they came from countries with internal or international armed conflicts, or were controlled by authoritarian governments that did not respect human rights.

“They are people who left their countries for the need for international protection. So, that places them in a condition of vulnerability and revictimization,” he warned.

In the case of deportees who were sent to Panama, they were initially housed at the Decapolis Hotel, in the Panamanian capital, under the custody of armed guards that prevented them from leaving.

Through the glass walls, several of them wrote or showed messages to ask for help.

An Iranian woman who lived in Panama for years told BBC Mundo at that time that she was in contact with one of the migrants inside the hotel and said they were “terrified” because of the possibility of taking them to Iran.