A Talk with an Iranian Migrant in Costa Rica en Route to the U.S. Border
By Todd Bensman on December 20, 2018
GOLFITO, Costa Rica — Iranian citizen Sina Zandi Chareh Bayan recognized me before I him. A week earlier, he and his three Iranian co-travelers had seen me arrive and walk around a Panamanian government migrant camp at the off-grid Darien State subsistence village of La Peñita, when I and my interpreter pulled up next to it in our rental, parked, and started walking around among various migrants free to mill outside the camp wire. Panamanian police were not interested in allowing us to see, let alone interview, any of these detainees, all of whom were picked up recently in the Darien Gap jungle further south and brought here to rest and catch their breath before being put on buses to Costa Rica.
We actually met the next week some 25 miles inside Costa Rica, at another loosely-guarded government camp where migrants processing in openly from Panama are taken, likewise for a couple of days of rest and relaxation. They can leave whenever they are ready, with helpful maps and information to travel north to the Nicaragua border by bus.
Of the four Iranians, Only Bayan spoke some English.
https://cis.org/Bensman/Talk-Iranian-Migrant-Costa-Rica-en-Route-US-Border
