Many migrants arrived in Costa Rica without even knowing where they were and were desperately seeking to reach their relatives to let them know their circumstances, according to a report released on Friday by Costa Rica’s ombudsman that sharply criticized the treatment of deportees sent by the United States.
When the 135 deportees arrived at an international airport outside the country’s capital, San José, many people “expressed visible distress,” the report said.
Many people in the group, which included children, did not have access to their documents, complicating the process of verifying family relationships, it said. (It was not clear if the migrants’ documents had been confiscated by American or Costa Rican authorities.)
The migrants sent to Costa Rica are the latest group of deportees, largely from Asia and the Middle East, to be sent to Central America by the Trump administration, which says they illegally crossed the U.S. border. More than half of those sent to Costa Rica are from Uzbekistan, China and Armenia, according to the Costa Rican government.
Costa Rica’s security minister, Mario Zamora, disputed the ombudsman office’s claims, asserting that its assessment was based on a two-hour period after the migrants landed, rather than when they reached their final destination, a facility several hours from the capital.
“We do not agree with what was stated,” Mr. Zamora said in a statement. “And regret that they did not accompany the migrants on their journey south as they should have.”