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Fleeing Nicaraguans strain Costa Rica’s asylum system

A Nicaraguan family arrives to a Catholic church where the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has set up a field office to assist people applying for asylum in San Jose, Costa Rica, Monday, Aug. 29, 2022. A painting hangs of Cuban's "Nuestra Señora de la Caridad del Cobre" or, Our Lady of Charity. Nicaraguans have been seeking asylum in Costa Rica at the highest levels since Nicaragua’s political crisis exploded in April 2018. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo) Nicaraguans wait for their first interviews in their application for asylum outside the Refugee Service Center in San Jose, Costa Rica, Monday, Aug. 29, 2022. The exodus of Nicaraguans fleeing political repression has neighboring Costa Rica’s asylum system teetering under the weight of applications that exceed even the 1980s when civil wars ravaged Central America. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo) Nicaraguan Xaviera Molina, center, who was granted asylum in Costa Rica, listens to Ruth Blass Lopez who is applying for asylum, at a diner that serves traditional Nicaraguan food ownd by a Nicaraguan asylum-seeker in San Jose, Costa Rica, Friday, Aug. 26, 2022. Molina, a marketing major, was a single mother at the time in the second year of her degree track when students expanded the protest against Ortega’s government and she got involved, first distributing food and then eventually helping provide medical care to wounded students. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo) Nicaraguan asylum-seeker Evelyn Morales Cuningham checks her phone outside the diner she opened this year in San Jose, Costa Rica, Friday, Aug. 26, 2022. The 28-year-old said she quickly sold several of her businesses and home in Nicaragua in 2018 when she took her three children to Costa Rica and applied for asylum, where she continues to wait for approval. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo) A Nicaraguan baseball player for the local Mets team waits to bat in a preparation game against La Carpio ahead of baseball season at Sabana Park in San Jose, Costa Rica, Sunday, Aug. 28, 2022. The number of players for the local league in Costa Rica has increased since Nicaraguans began seeking asylum at the highest levels since their country['s political crisis exploded in April 2018. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo) Nicaraguan asylum-seeker Cristopher Mendoza does a Facebook live broadcast for a Nicaraguan audience of a local baseball game between the Mets and La Carpio during a preparation tournament before the start of the regular season at Sabana Park in San Jose, Costa Rica, Sunday, Aug. 28, 2022. The number of players for the local league in Costa Rica has increased since Nicaraguans began seeking asylum at the highest levels since their country['s political crisis exploded in April 2018. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo) Nicaraguans hold a baseball tournament ahead of the regular season at Sabana Park in San Jose, Costa Rica, Sunday, Aug. 28, 2022. The number of players for the local league in Costa Rica has increased since Nicaraguans began seeking asylum at the highest levels since their country['s political crisis exploded in April 2018. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo) Nicaraguan Wilmer Ramos, sitting, shares corn tortillas with a teammate before they play in a preparation tournament before the start of the local baseball league at Sabana Park in San Jose, Costa Rica, Sunday, Aug. 28, 2022. The number of players for the local league in Costa Rica has increased since Nicaraguans began seeking asylum at the highest levels since their country['s political crisis exploded in April 2018. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo) Nicaraguan journalist Hector Rosales, right, does a virtual interview of a Colombian Congresswoman from a studio-apartment used by Nicaraguan journalists in exile who report on their home country from San Jose, Costa Rica, Monday, Aug. 29, 2022. Since the summer of 2021 when Nicaragua President Daniel Ortega locked up dozens of political opponents ahead of November’s presidential elections, Nicaraguans have been seeking asylum in Costa Rica at the highest levels since Nicaragua’s political crisis exploded in April 2018. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo) Nicaraguan asylum-seeker Lludely Aburto Ruiz poses for photos at Democracy Square in San Jose, Costa Rica, Saturday, Aug. 27, 2022. The 56-year-old said she was getting ready to retire from a nonprofit that offered education and health services but had to leave Nicaragua after months of police harassment in front of her home and being frequently mentioned in pro-government press outlets and attacked on social media due to her activism with the political opposition. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo) Nicaraguan David Esteban Narvaez poses for a portrait after receiving his asylum seeker credentials, which allows him to stay and work legally in Costa Rica, outside the Refugee Service Center in San Jose, Costa Rica, Monday, Aug. 29, 2022. Three months after applying for asylum, applicants can begin working legally, but many said that some employers do not recognize the government-issued card identifying them as asylum seekers. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo) Nicaraguan asylum-seeker Katherine Ramirez poses for a portrait as she walks to the bus stop on her way home from work in San Jose, Costa Rica, Tuesday, Aug. 23, 2022. The 23-year-old who left Nicaragua in March and became a student leader among Nicaraguan students in exile, is hoping to continue her political science education in Costa Rica. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo) Nicaraguan asylum-seeker Elton Rivera poses for a portrait by the railroad tracks in San Jose, Costa Rica, late Monday, Aug. 29, 2022. Rivera snuck out of Nicaragua along a trail over a mountain in February and was soon on a bus to San Jose after the government shuttered his university, its director told him he was going into exile and warned that the police were coming for Rivera too. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo) Nicaraguan asylum-seeker Carlos Eddy Monterrey wears the "Macho Raton" costume used to perform a traditional Nicaraguan dance as he meets with other exiled Nicaraguans in San Jose, Costa Rica, Friday, Aug. 26, 2022. Monterrey met with other Nicaraguans to film a short video that will be part of video showing Nicaraguans in exile worldwide. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo) Nicaraguan asylum-seekers meet to film a short video that will be part of video showing Nicaraguans in exile worldwide, in San Jose, Costa Rica, Friday, Aug. 26, 2022. Since the summer of 2021 when Nicaragua President Daniel Ortega locked up dozens of political opponents ahead of November’s presidential elections, Nicaraguans have been seeking asylum in Costa Rica at the highest levels since Nicaragua’s political crisis exploded in April 2018. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)