23,000 Nicaraguans seek asylum in Costa Rica: UN

Nearly 23,000 people fleeing turmoil in Nicaragua have sought asylum in neighbouring Costa Rica, the UN refugee agency said yesterday, as it announced a beefed up presence in the region. Three months of protests against Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega’s rule and the brutal response by security forces and paramilitary groups have killed more than 300 people. “The number of asylum applications by Nicaraguans in neighbouring Costa Rica and other countries has increased exponentially,” UNHCR spokesman William Spindler told reporters in Geneva. Costa Rican authorities have registered nearly 8,000 asylum claims since April.