Mexico Authorizes “Direct Transfer” Of All Cubans Stranded In Central America

Mexico Authorizes "Direct Transfer" Of All Cubans Stranded In Central
America / 14ymedio
Posted on February 5, 2016

14ymedio, Havana, 5 February 2016 — The Mexican government has decided
to accelerate the transfer of Cubans stranded in Costa Rica and will
extend the "humanitarian measure" to those who are in a similar
situation in other Central American countries. In a statement released
Friday by its regional headquarters in Ciudad Hidalgo (Chiapas), the
National Migration Institute (INM) said that "in the coming days we will
allow the direct and orderly transfer" of Cuban migrants who have ben in
Central America since last November.

In a statement, the Government of Costa Rica said that in the coming
days the first flight to Mexico will take place, carrying pregnant women
and family groups with children.

From the second half of this month, the direct route to Mexico "will be
an alternative option," while the trip from Costa Rica to El Salvador
and the journey overland to the Mexican border at Tapachula (in Chiapas)
will also continue operating.

The cost of the direct transfer to Mexico will be approximately $790
while the trip via El Salvador will remain at $545. In the pilot
project for the transfer of Cuban migrants, which took place in January,
the cost was set at $555.

The INM emphasizes that this is an "exceptional humanitarian measure
with limited application" that "seeks to support regional efforts to
resolve a situation that for months has strained relations among the
countries near Mexico."

The institute says that the measure is intended to alleviate the
inability of some countries in the region to "mobilize, in reasonable
time frames, to move the migrants stranded for months in Central
America, with all the consequences that that entails."

According to the statement, the measure is also intended to give the
migrants certainty as to their dates of travel, and to avoid human
traffickers — who offer most dangerous and high-cost routes — from
exploiting their need to need continue their journey.

Today, Friday, Mexico received a group of 184 Cubans, the first of seven
transfers of migrants scheduled for this month, which the countries
involved agreed to on 20 January. The Cubans will arrive in Mexico
through the border at Ciudad Hidalgo, in the state of Chiapas, where
they will be issued, free of charge, a provisional visitors permit on
humanitarian grounds, allowing them to remain in the country for up to
20 days.

The transfers, scheduled for Tuesdays and Thursdays, will follow the
same path as the pilot program on the 12th and 13th of January, that was
undertaken with the first group of 180 Cubans. The migrants will travel
by plane from Liberia, Costa Rica to San Salvador, El Salvador, and from
there travel by bus to the border at Tecun Uman, Guatemala, and then to
the Mexican border town of Ciudad Hidalgo.

Since the beginning of this year, the Chiapas INM has received 2,259
Cubans who arrived by land from Guatemala. In 2015 it received 12,102
for the entire year.

Mexico, according to the statement, will host a meeting to exchange
information and generate joint strategies to combat the smuggling of
migrants in the region.

Source: Mexico Authorizes "Direct Transfer" Of All Cubans Stranded In
Central America / 14ymedio | Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/mexico-authorizes-direct-transfer-of-all-cubans-stranded-in-central-america-14ymedio/