(QCostarica) At 3:42pm on June 3, was born on Costa Rican soil the first baby of African migrants who entered the country last April in their attempt to reach the United States. The baby girl is the daughter of Marie Loude Gue, 35, who is originally from Senegal.
The baby was born at the Liberia hospital of natural childbirth. Seidy Herrera, director of the Hospital Enrique Baltodano Briceño said the baby was born at 40 weeks gestation, the mother had not had any prenatal care, and spent two days in hospital after the delivery.
The Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social (CCSS) – the Caja – reports the woman and baby are together with other migrants in the Las Vueltas shelter, in Santa Cruz de Guanacaste.
Luis Bolaños, director of the Civil Registry (Registro Civil), explained that as the child is Costa Rica, the parents are now able to obtain residency in the country.
“They can acquire residency for family reunion”, said Bolaños.
Since April mor than 4,700 African and Haitian migrants have been stranded in Costa Rica, finding the immigration doors closed to them by Nicaragua. Currently, only 2,000 migrants are being accounted for in Costa Rica, the immigration service saying that up to 2,700 have made their way out of the country, probably crossing into Nicaragua illegally with the help of “coyotes” (smugglers).
Official say some 1,500 migrants are in Guanacaste, the other 500 in the area of Buenos Aires and Golfito, in Puntarenas.
The Caja says that since April it has spent ¢121 million colones in treating the African and Haitian migrants; ¢3.5 million of that to deliver the Loude Gue baby.
The Loude Gue baby is not the first ‘migrant’ baby to see light in Costa Rica. Product of the wave of Cubans stuck in Costa Rica last year, also on their way to the United States, three births were of Cuban migrant parents were recorded on Costa Rican soil. The first was born on January 5, the second on March 4, and the third on March 18.
The families of the three children were able to reach the United States, after spending almost six months in Costa Rica, waiting. The situation for the Cubans is quite different from that of the African migrants: upon arrival on US soil, Cubans are welcomed under the Cuban Adjustment Act, which allows them to obtain formal residency in the U.S.
Source La Nacion
