While a second wave of more than 1,000 Cuban migrants once again massed on Costa Rica’s southern border this week, Costa Rica’s immigration police are also simultaneously dealing with a significant increase in undocumented migrants and refugees from the Middle East and Africa attempting to traverse the country’s territory on their way to the United States.

Early Friday morning, Costa Rica’s Immigration Police arrested another group of five undocumented West African migrants from Ghana as well as two Costa Rican people smugglers, known as “coyotes,” at a roadblock in Puerto Jimenez in southern Costa Rica.

The arrests come just a week after Costa Rican police apprehended a group of four other undocumented Ghanaian migrants and a Costa Rican “coyote” in nearby Golfito.

Costa Rican authorities have increasingly been encountering undocumented migrants from the Middle East and Africa attempting to traverse Costa Rica and Central America en route to the United States.

In late December, Costa Rica law enforcement officers detained 51 illegal migrants from Iraq, Syria, Nepal, Bangladesh, Somalia and Eritrea who were traveling concealed in the back of a cattle truck near Jaco.

Also in December, authorities detained another 17 undocumented migrants from Nepal and Bangladesh, also in Golfito in southern Costa Rica.

Central America is increasingly being used as a “land bridge” for migrants and refugees from around the world to reach the United States.

Migrants and refugees from Cuba, Iraq, Syria, Nepal, Bangladesh, Somalia, and Ghana, amongst other countries, begin their journey by flying to Ecuador, in South America, a country that doesn’t require entry visas for nearly any nationality.  The migrants then continue their journey northward by land, illegally traversing Central America nations like Costa Rica along the way with the assistance of human smugglers and traffickers.