2023-04-21 18:55:28
The political situation of various countries in Latin America and the world have made Costa Rica become a safe space or country from the persecution that nationals of those countries can receive.
We as a country recognize International Protection based on the original definition of refuge that is established in the Convention on the Status of Refugees of 1951 and states in its article A.2 “due to well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of her nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail herself of the protection of such a country…”.
This article is clearly related to article 106 of the General Law on Migration and Aliens, which establishes: “A refugee will be understood as a person who: 1) Due to well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, gender, belonging to a certain group or political opinion, is outside the country of their nationality and cannot or, because of said fears, does not want to avail himself of the protection of that country”.
Reasons why refugee status is recognized in Costa Rica
Following the previous references, a refugee application must be based on persecution carried out as a result of one of the reasons indicated:
1. Raza
2. Religion
3. Nationality
4. Gender
5. Belonging to a certain group
6. Political views
In the event that the refugee request does not have that reason and in accordance with the modification to the Refugee Regulations, made by Decree 43810 MGP in December 2022, which modified articles 121 and 140 of the aforementioned regulation and gave it Greater powers to the Refuge Unit, in the case of requests that are not related to the parameters of the aforementioned convention, they can be declared manifestly unfounded or rejected outright. Or, this can even happen to people who have exceeded the deadline of the month to request refuge while inside the country (established in article 14 of the Refugee Regulations).
This aforementioned rejection could imply that the resolution does not have the possibility of challenging with the ordinary resources of Revocation and Appeal.
When and how to file a Revocation or Appeal resource?
However, based on article 221 and 118 of the aforementioned General Law on Migration and Aliens, if there really is, on the part of the applicant, the consideration that their case has been poorly assessed, it is recommended that they file within the Revocation and Appeal Resources in Subsidy three days and add a concomitant Nullity of the resolution that made a flat rejection of the refugee application, for this presentation it is advisable to do it through formal legal advice, which can be located in a Non-Governmental Organization that is in charge of giving legal advice to migrants or with a lawyer you trust.
On the other hand, in the event that your refugee application has been rejected in the ordinary way, you will be given three days to present the respective appeals for Revocation and Subsidy Appeal; In this sense, you must take advantage of the term and represent both resources so that you have the possibility that through this recursive procedure your case will be valued differently.
Regarding this assessment, there is an Administrative Immigration Tribunal in Costa Rica, which is a Court that is completely independent from the Refugee Unit and the Restricted Visas and Refugee Commission and hears the Appeal, which can make a broader and different assessment of your application. In this sense, applicants are given the possibility for the application to be known by an impartial third party, who, to put it colloquially, will have new eyes to see why a refugee application is being made.
What do I do if I can no longer file an appeal?
In the event that it has been rejected for a long time and the Subsidy Revocation and Appeal resources have not been used, even if it was rejected before December 2022, it is recommended that you participate in the Temporary Special Category which we talked about in the previous post.
Finally, in the event that none of the procedures can be performed or participate in the CET; Should the person locate an Ordinary Immigration Category find out about the requirements, and try to meet them as we have been writing in this column to inform them about the General requirements and specific to various categories. In this sense, we invite you to read us, not only on this occasion, but to review previous publications where you can find valuable information about the immigration regularization processes in Costa Rica so that you can have your “Papers in Rule”.
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