Costa Rica to Tell Cuba It Can't Help Migrants Indefinitely

Costa Rican President Luis Guillermo Solis arrived in Cuba Sunday to discuss what to do about the thousands of Cuban migrants currently stranded in Costa Rica after several countries have blocked their passage through to the United States.

President Solis is expected to tell Cuban President Raul Castro that it can no longer handle the some 6,000 Cuban migrants who have been in the country for the past month.

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Nicaragua was the first to close its borders to the migrants last month, but so far Belize and Guatemala have followed suit after Mexico refused to confirm that it would let the migrants through, saying its entry laws also forbid it from allowing the Cubans to enter.

“We cannot maintain this task indefinitely,” Solis said of the effort by national and local officials, churches, and private companies who have been supporting the Cubans, most of them living in shelters.

“With all brotherly frankness, I will pose this in meetings to be held with the presidents of the SICA (Central American Integration System) and in Havana with President Raul Castro,” Solis said on a local Costa Rica broadcast Sunday.

Solis' visit to Cuba had been planned long before the issue arose of Cuban migrants stranded on the island, but it is expected to be a major part of the leaders' discussion. This will be the first official visit by a Costa Rican president to Cuba in 72 years.

“Wet-Foot, Dry-Foot”

Cuban officials say U.S. migration policy towards Cubans are to blame for the current impasse. This includes what's known as the “wet-foot, dry-foot” policy of 1966, which they say drives “illegal, risky and chaotic migration.”

The policy grants Cubans residency when they touch down on U.S. soil, encouraging migration, yet does not provide Cubans with legal or safe channels to reach the country.

Cubans have long been traveling through Central America in order to reach the United States, and often begin their journey in Ecuador, which allows them to enter without a visa. Once in the South American nation, they make the journey north by land, usually with the help of human traffickers, in order to reach the U.S.

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