Costa Rican court orders release of migrants deported from US
19 hours ago
Vanessa Buschschlüter
BBC News
EZEQUIEL BECERRA/AFP via Getty Images
Afghan national Mohammad Saber Asad was among those sent to the Temporary Migrant Care Center (Catem) in Costa Rica
A court in Costa Rica has ordered the release of 200 migrants deported from the US.
Rights groups say the group - from countries including Afghanistan, China, Ghana, India and Vietnam - had been taken to a shelter they were not allowed to leave unsupervised.
Immigration officials have been given two weeks to determine the migrants' status and release them from the shelter where some are still being housed.
They were sent to Costa Rica after its government agreed to receive migrants deported to countries other than their homeland.
The deportees, among them more than 80 children, arrived on flights from the US shortly after the deal between the two governments was struck in February.
All 200 had been screened by US authorities and found to have "no links to terrorist groups", Costa Rican migration authorities said.
They were taken to the Temporary Migrant Care Centre (Catem), 360km (220 miles) south of the capital, San José.
A report by rights organisations said they were held there "arbitrarily and illegally for more than 60 days" without access to legal counsel or information in their respective languages.
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