QCOSTARICA — The use of buses to transport migrants through Costa Rica and Panama and to the northern border with Nicaragua worries United States authorities, as Joe Biden’s government officials confirmed to “The New York Times”. Costa Rica and Panama officials maintain that the bus system makes the trip less dangerous and allows migrants to avoid organized crime groups that traffic migrants. “Instead, the shuttles seem to be forming a fast lane for them to race north,” write Zolan Kanno-Youngs and David Bolaños, reporting from Paso Canoas and San José, Costa Rica. In Panama, each migrant must pay US$60 to get to the Paso Canoas border with Costa Rica by bus and US$30 more to be transported to the Peñas Blancas border with Nicaragua. Before the busing program in Costa Rica, migrants easily crossed the southern border into Costa Rica, as they looked for temporary work which could help them with the journey to San Jose, a further station, before continuing to the northern border.

Source: New York Times November 09, 2023 11:53 UTC