The UNHCR Office has developed a number of complementary initiatives to improve the two-way communication with refugees,
COSTA RICA FACTSHEET January 2017
HIGHLIGHTS 4180
4470
Recognised refugees. 56% from Colombia and 15% from NCTA countries.
New asylum claims registered during 2016. 33% from El Salvador and 30% from Venezuela.
223%
319%
1003%
Increase of asylum applications from 2014 to 2016. 103% increase compared to 2015.
Increase in applications from the NCTA countries in the last two years.
Increase in applications from Venezuela in the last two years.
Context information
Asylum seekers in 2016
During the last two years, Costa Rica has faced a growing number of asylum applications, mainly from NTCA countries (El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala), Colombia, Venezuela. The country has also served as transit for migrants in a mixedmigration situation in their journey northwards. UNHCR’s 2016 - 2018 multi-year protection and solutions strategy in Costa Rica aims to ensure timely and fair RSD decisions and promote local integration for all refugees and persons of concern from the earliest stages of displacement, through their inclusion in the various national protection and integration mechanisms available in the country.
17% 36%
32% 15%
NTCA (1629)
Colombia (669)
Venezuela (1423)
Others (749)
UNHCR Presence Staff:
Offices: 1 office in San José - 2 border monitoring posts
ET
UNHCR FACTSHEET
21 National Staff - 2 International Staff
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WORKING WITH PARTNERS UNHCR Costa Rica works with a wide range of governmental and non-governmental, private sector and international actors, including the UN system. The Office signed several Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with key stakeholders, including the Ministry of the Presidency, Migration Authority, Ministry of Education, the Judiciary and its National Coalition for Access to Justice for Migrants and Refugees, Office of the Ombudsperson, National Vocational Training Institute and the Costa Rican Chamber of Commerce, Supreme Electoral Tribunal, among others. UNHCR Costa Rica operation has been guided by the principles of 2014 Brazil Declaration and Plan of Action. In that regard Costa Rica pledged to strengthen the RSD procedures, to reinforce the Regional Quality Assurance Initiative and to maintain monitoring from a “Borders of Solidarity” perspective. UNHCR has successfully moved from traditional interventions to a program based on shared responsibility with national and local authorities, private sector, the UN System, particularly United Nations Country Team (UNCT), UNICEF, ILO, IOM and UNDP, the academia and UNHCR´s partners: HIAS, ACAI, RET, Fundación Mujer, CENDEROS and the Jesuit Migrants’ Service. Together with the GoCR and within the framework of Quality Assurance Initiative (QAI) as a protection tool to further strengthening RSD procedures, the UNHCR has assisted with specific interventions to remove backlogs and enhance its institutional capacity to resolve increasing RSD cases within legal timeframes.
MAIN ACTIVITIES Protection Border monitoring through identifying persons in need of international protection to effectively access RSD procedures and to address their specific protection needs at early stages conducive to their prompt to their local integration. Assist the GoCR in their implementation of the Quality Assurance Initiative to continue strengthening RSD procedures. Within QAI, provide capacity building activities and technical support to the Refugee Unit and the Administrative Migration Tribunal, ensuring fair and timely RSD decisions, including Country of Origin Information visits and facilitating RSD coordination team meeting on a monthly basis. Work hand-in-hand with local authorities and local civil society, to strengthen local protection networks. Provide legal advice and aid through partner HIAS. Promote International Refugee Law in various fora, including a post-graduate course at La Salle University. In partnership with CENDEROS, provide a safe house for SGBV women and LGTBI survivors from NTCA countries. Assist the GoCR in addressing sub-birth registration among indigenous and transnational migrant workers born in Costa Rica to foreign parents, through a variety of programmes such as Chiriticos´ and others jointly implemented with the National Civil Registry Office in a bid to eliminate the risk of statelessness in Costa Rica. Honouring the regional solidarity resettlement programme UNHCR, the GOCR and IOM have signed and MoU to establish a Protection Transfer Mechanism in the country for NTCA asylum seekers in heightened risk.
Durable Solutions The Protection and Solutions Strategy allows refugees and asylum seekers to access legal, socioeconomic and sociocultural integration through different interventions: ∙
The Livelihoods Programme “Vivir la Integración”, which comprises a Corporate Social Responsibility scheme involving private companies and public institutions, blended with the Graduation Approach, the pilot project focused on UNHCR’s persons of concern living in poverty and socioeconomic vulnerability.
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The Legal Integration Programme which seeks to integrate refugees through naturalization and permanent residence procedures and provide a clear pathway to refugees who meet the eligibility criteria.
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Advocacy and lobbying with key governmental counterparts to overcome the main barriers hampering full access to socio-economic, as well as legal integration for PoC.
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Information and sensitization of key actors, such as: journalists, governmental officials, students and decisionmakers, in order to create a conducive cultural and social environment for local integration.
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The provision of psychological support to PoC in case of special needs.
The UNHCR Office has developed a number of complementary initiatives to improve the two-way communication with refugees, such as a social media campaign called “Being a refugee is like being a Costa Rican“; the website Help.unhcr.org; digital information stands placed in strategic points; the mobile app ACNUR CR, as well as information videos.
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