Document #1064776
IRB – Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (Author)
According to the Consul General of Costa
Rica in Ottawa, the terms "status refugee" and "Convention refugee"
may be used generally in Costa Rica to describe those who have been
granted refugee status (14 Apr. 1992). The individual refugees
would normally be classified by authorities in more detail by
country of origin, problems faced, etc. (Ibid.). The Consul
General stated that refugees are sometimes required to sign a
release form renouncing their status as refugees in order to
acquire a travel document for exiting the country. There are,
however, different travel documents and conditions for exit and
return which would depend on the particulars of the case
(Ibid.). Usually, a refugee who remains outside Costa Rica
for more than six months loses his/her refugee status and has to
reapply, which means going through the determination procedure
again (Ibid.). The Consul General offered to assist in the
determination of the rights granted by a particular Costa Rican
travel document or visa. For this purpose, more details than those
provided in your request would be required, including perhaps a
sanitized photocopy of a passport or parts of it.
A Protection Officer at the United Nations
High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Costa Rica indicated that
the term "status refugee" may have been used generally to describe
a person who had been granted refugee status by the Costa Rican
government (14 Apr. 1992). Such a person should actually be called
a "Convention refugee" (Ibid.). The Officer added that
people who claim but are not granted refugee status by the
government could become "mandate refugees" or refugees under UNHCR
mandate ("refugiado bajo mandato del ACNUR" in Spanish). The
refugees under UNHCR mandate cannot obtain travel documents from
the government, although they are under the protection of the
UNHCR, which includes financial assistance, protection against
refoulement and help in repatriating (Ibid.).
Consulate General of Costa Rica,
Ottawa. 14 April 1992. Telephone Interview with Consulate
General.
United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees (UNHCR), San José. 14 April 1992. Telephone
Interview with Protection Officer.