Minors could have been trafficked to the US through Costa Rica

The cases, she said, are sensitive since some include the transit of minors and that is why the decision has been taken not to accept Schengen visas for reasons of national security, Vargas was quoted as saying.

She adds, “We have cases where Costa Rica was a country of transit, people whose visas were checked at the airport and were rejected because of problems with their visas and in officials’ interviews with the travellers.”

She added that when passport control officers questioned the travellers, they did not even know their own supposed details as listed in their passports and visas.

Such cases were seen to have escalated in the recent past, according to Vargas, but more recently more sensitive cases involving minors have been identified, which has led the country to cancelling automatic entry for Schengen visa and passport holders. In the latter cases, Maltese and Polish passports have been specifically mentioned.

She also said that Costa Rican authorities are investigating whether the suspected trafficked minors’ final destination was Costa Rica itself or whether they were merely transiting through the country and being trafficked to the United States.

A Costa Rican judicial investigation into the matter has now been launched. It is not excluded that fake Maltese passports or falsified Maltese Schengen visas have been used as a means of illegally entering Costa Rica.

Costa Rica uncovered network trafficking Malta’s migrants in 2008

Strangely enough, this is not the first time that Malta and Costa Rica have been linked when it comes to illicit travel.

Back in 2008, this newspaper had reported how African migrants let out of detention in Malta had left the country and ended up as far away as Central America in an attempt to illegally gain entry to the United States, according to an investigation carried out by the Costa Rican immigration police.

Costa Rican authorities had uncovered what they said was a network trafficking African migrants from Europe to the United States, using Latin America as a bridge.

As a result of the investigation, the Costa Rican authorities deported 25 Eritreans in 2008.

Investigations carried out by the Costa Rican authorities, a Costa Rican police statement said at the time, identified a route by which Africans leave Malta, travel to Venezuela and make their way overland through Panama, Costa Rica, the rest of Central America and Mexico – from where they attempted to move on to the United States.

Another route identified by the Costa Rican police saw African migrants illegally obtaining travel papers in Italy, travelling on to Spain and then to Costa Rica, Mexico and their intended final destination of the United States, after navigating the dicey US-Mexico border.

The Costa Rican Public Security Ministry said in a statement at the time that, “Apparently there is a network dedicated to relocating Africans from one country to another with the goal of enabling them to reach their final destination, which is the United States.”

Malta’s missing unaccompanied minors

In 2014 the alarm over the disappearance of unaccompanied minors from Malta’s open centres had been raised, with the aditus foundation reporting at the time that an average of two migrant children go missing each week.

While some of the children eventually returned to their open centres, others went missing permanently.

The NGO said that the state of affairs “raises concerns regarding possible trafficking of minors out of Malta”.

The NGO reported at the time that, “A number of UAMs (unaccompanied minors) frequently go missing from the open centres, some of whom disappear permanently. Staff members at the centre for minors, which runs a semi-independent living programme, reported that on average, two minors go missing permanently from the centre each week.

“This situation,” aditus reported, “may be linked to the inadequate monitoring of the open centres and a lack of individualised follow-up with the minors. It also raises concerns of a heightened risk and vulnerability to trafficking or other forms of exploitation of minors.

“According to interviewees, most only go missing for a couple of days because they have gone to stay with friends, but some also disappear permanently – most likely because they have left the country. According to some reports, as many as two minors go missing permanently from the open centres every week.”