Costa Rica Limited Emergency Operation (June - November 2025)

LEO approved by the RD in May 2025.

Revision 01 approved by the RD in November 2025.

For many years, the Western Hemisphere has experienced large-scale population movements running primarily along a south-north axis. In the past two years, however, the number of reported migrant arrivals moving northwards has declined significantly. Meanwhile, there are currently large numbers of South American migrants in Mexico who, having failed to successfully cross into the USA, are returning southwards towards their place of origin.

Costa Rica is an important transit point along that route and is seeing South American returning migrants arriving at the country’s northern border with Nicaragua at a current rate of approximately 200 new arrivals per day.  This population is in urgent need of humanitarian assistance to meet their basic food needs as they transit the country. However, the crisis threatens to overwhelm the response capacities of the Government and its humanitarian partners.

This Limited Emergency Operation addresses that gap. Working in close coordination with the Costa Rican authorities at the national and local levels as well as existing humanitarian actors, WFP will provide emergency food assistance in the form of hot meals to up to 36,000 returning South American migrants during a 6-month period (by which point the situation is expected to have stabilized, thereby enabling WFP to hand over and phase out).