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A6 WORLD NEWS
Monday 27 February 2023
Fleeing Nicaraguans a boon to economy back home

By GABRIELA SELSER years and its economy has
Associated Press struggled to recover from
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Each the COVID-19 pandemic.
month, Antón Martínez, Costa Rica President Rodri-
38, sets aside $200 from his go Chaves tightened the
wages as a dishwasher in generous asylum system in
the United States to send December, arguing that it
home to his mother in Nica- was being abused by eco-
ragua. nomic migrants.
Martínez wishes it could Those factors made the U.S.
be more, but he’s still try- a more attractive destina-
ing to find his footing in the tion despite the distance.
new country and pay off Ortega blames the U.S.
the debt of his migration. sanctions for the emigra-
His monthly contribution to tion.
family back home was part In Martínez’s case, he left
of a 50% surge in remittanc- because he had partici-
es to Nicaragua in 2022, a pated in anti-government
massive jump that analysts protests in 2018 and feared
attribute to the thousands he could be arrested at
of Nicaraguans who emi- any moment. “I miss my
grated to the U.S. in the mother and I love Nicara-
past two years. A candy vendor walks past a Western Union branch in Managua, Nicaragua, Saturday, Feb. 25, gua, but there was nothing
They have been leaving as 2023. else to do. It was leave or
the government intensifies Associated Press be taken prisoner at some
a crackdown on opposi- ing Nicaragua’s economy have been targeted to- and voices of dissent. point.”
tion voices since early 2021, afloat with the more than ward his inner circle and Ortega cracked down vio- Many others reached the
high global inflation slams $3.2 billion they sent home members of his administra- lently after popular protests same decision.
families’ buying power and last year. tion to avoid adding more broke out in April 2018. He Nicaragua’s government
job opportunities remain Last year’s huge jump, economic hardship for av- ratcheted up the pressure released data late last year
limited at home. “can only be explained erage Nicaraguans. in 2021 ahead of national showing that between
That swell of Nicaraguan by the disproportionate in- Still, for the fiscal year end- elections. Sept. 17 and Oct. 7, it issued
arrivals to the U.S. was part crease in migrants,” Nica- ing last September, U.S. Earlier this month, he put 20,192 passports. In the
of the reason the Biden ad- raguan economist Enrique authorities recorded more 222 imprisoned opponents capital, residents camped
ministration announced in Sáenz said. than 163,000 encounters on a plane to Washington, out on sidewalks just to get
January that it would begin Emigration “has become with Nicaraguans, more saying he was sending the one of the limited numbers
turning them away at the (President Daniel Ortega’s) than three times the 2021 “terrorists” back to their for- called each day to process
border if they did not first main macroeconomic total. Encounters peaked in eign sponsor. a passport application.
register online to make asy- policy and his main social December with more than Until last year, Costa Rica Sabrina Gazol Moncada,
lum petitions. Their numbers policy,” Saenz said. 35,000 and then plummet- had been the primary des- a 28-year-old college stu-
have dropped precipitous- Ortega’s increasingly au- ed to 3,377 in January. tination for Nicaraguans in dent who had to drop out
ly since. thoritarian government The reasons vary from a recent years. But the small to find work, left Nicaragua
But Martínez, who arrived has drawn sanctions from lack of economic oppor- neighboring country’s asy- in October, the month after
in late 2021, and others the U.S. government and tunity to outright persecu- lum system is overwhelmed, her husband travelled to
already there are keep- Europe, but the measures tion of political opponents the wait now stretches the U.S.q

Afghan refugees in Pakistan protest

delay in U.S. resettlement

ity 1 and Priority 2, known their visa applications. and freedom of expression.
as P1 and P2 refugee pro- The delay in approving vi- We are currently asking for
grams were meant to fast sas and resettlement has your support and compan-
track visas for at-risk Af- left Afghan applicants in a ionship in the bad days of
ghans including journalists highly vulnerable position life,” read one banner held
and rights activists after the as they contend with eco- by Afghan demonstrators.
Taliban takeover in their nomic hardship and lack of Hesamuddin, an Afghan
homeland. access to health, educa- who is waiting on the pro-
Those eligible must have tion and other services in cessing of his P2 case, said
worked for the U.S. govern- Pakistan. authorities should evacu-
Afghan refugees hold placards during a protest in Islamabad, ment, a U.S.-based media Protesters said that appli- ate Afghan P1 and P2 ap-
Pakistan, Sunday, Feb. 26, 2023. organization or nongov- cants had yet to receive plicants to a country where
Associated Press ernmental organization in the preliminary interview the necessary resettlement
Afghanistan, and must be necessary to begin the visa support centers (RSC) are
By RAHIM FAIEZ sas protested in Pakistan’s referred by the U.S.-based application process. open and able to con-
Associated Press capital on Sunday, as an employer. “We, the holders of P1/P2 duct interviews. “They must
ISLAMABAD (AP) — Hun- American program to help Applicants have been cases, your allies, and col- evacuate us to another
dreds of Afghan refugees relocate at-risk Afghans waiting in Pakistan for more leagues, played significant country where RSCs are
facing extreme delays in fleeing Taliban rule stalls. than one and a half years role toward expansion of functioning and can pro-
the approval of U.S. vi- The U.S. government’s Prior- for U.S. officials to process democracy, human rights, cess there,” he said.q