Security & Strategic Review - March 2016 (ISSN 1741-4202)

COSTA RICA | Cuban migrant crisis. On 15 March, four months after arriving in Costa Rica, the final group of Cuban migrants stranded there en route to the US left for Mexico. This followed the launch of a pilot programme on 12 January 2016 to address the crisis caused by the surge in Cuban migrants seeking to reach the US via Central America [SSR-16-01]. The crisis made headlines in mid-November 2015 when Nicaragua closed its border with Costa Rica, leaving 4,817 Cubans stranded. Under the programme, Cubans were permitted to buy a US$555 ticket that included a flight to El Salvador, and then a bus journey into Mexico, from where they were permitted to make their own way to the US.