The Central American nation is the latest to sign a ‘third-country’ deportation agreement as part of Trump’s mass-deportation campaign.By The Associated PressPublished On 26 Mar 202626 Mar 2026Costa Rica has announced it will accept 25 migrants deported from the United States per week as part of an agreement to assist with President Donald Trump’s policy of deporting immigrants to “third countries”.The Central American nation joins a growing number of countries across Africa and the Americas that have signed contentious, often secretive agreements with the US to accept deportees from other countries.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of listIn many cases, critics say migrants who previously hoped to seek asylum in the US are left in a legal “black hole” in foreign countries where they don’t speak the language.Countries that have agreed to receive third-party migrants include South Sudan, Honduras, Rwanda, Guyana and several Caribbean islands like Dominica and St Kitts and Nevis.“Costa Rica is prepared to see this flow of people,” said Costa Rican Public Security Minister Mario Zamora Cordero in a video statement on Thursday.Costa Rica’s government signed the pact on Monday during a visit from US special envoy Kristi Noem, who was recently named to oversee the so-called “Shield of the Americas”.Noem, who was fired earlier this month from her role as secretary of Homeland Security, has been travelling through Latin America, with recent stops in Guyana and Ecuador.“We are very proud to have partners like President [Rodrigo Chaves] and Costa Rica, who are working to ensure that people who are in our country illegally have the opportunity to return to their countries of origin,” Noem said on Monday.Costa Rica’s govern …
