[{"bbox": [97, 153, 1133, 207], "category": "Text", "text": "(WFP), almost 25% of families live in poverty and more than 8% in extreme poverty, living on less than US$2.15 a day⁷."}, {"bbox": [97, 219, 1133, 509], "category": "Text", "text": "Nicaragua is facing a protracted socio-political crisis that has turned into the most complex conflict scenario since the Contra war in the 1980s. Socio-economic conditions deteriorated rapidly since the onset of the social protests in April 2018. Immediate effects of the unrest included a sharp economic contraction (-3.36 percent and -3.78 percent in 2018 and 2019, respectively) and the loss of an estimated 500,000 jobs. The country's socio-economic indicators had not stabilised to pre-2018 levels before having to face a third consecutive year of economic contraction (-1.79 percent), along with the impact of coronavirus pandemic and two major hurricanes that struck the North Autonomous Caribbean Coast in November 2020. The impact of the socio-political crisis, the COVID19 pandemic and the damages caused by the hurricanes exposed the country's high vulnerability to external and internal shocks. The United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) estimated that general poverty rate rose to 46,8% in 2022 (from 45,3% in 2021) as a result of 3 consecutive years of economic contraction between 2018 and 2020, the COVID19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine."}, {"bbox": [97, 523, 1133, 894], "category": "Text", "text": "Although historical Nicaraguan migration has been rooted in the search for better economic conditions, the most significant migration waves over the last fifty years were driven by recurrent political conflict or natural disasters.⁸ In spite of recent economic recovery, Nicaraguans have emigrated in large numbers in the last four years, fuelled by political repression, violence and deteriorating social and economic conditions. A researcher at the Inter-American Dialogue estimate that between 2018 and 2022, 604,485 Nicaraguans have left the country: some 100,000, between 2018 and 2019; 14,773 in 2020 (the year of the pandemic); 161,269 in 2021; and 328,443 in 2022. Sources from the Costa Rican government offer lower but still significant figures, indicating that between January and November 2022, immigration authorities counted 76,676 refugee application requests from Nicaraguans. Adding these and the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) estimate of 181,566 \"encounters\", around 258,000 people would have left the country.⁹ The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reports that, as of June 2023, there were 271,740 Nicaraguan asylum seekers and 18,545 Nicaraguans recognized as refugees worldwide. One of the main migrant recipient countries is Costa Rica, that is currently facing a migration crisis. The very large influx has strained the capacity of the relevant government agencies and the organizations that provide assistance to asylum seekers."}, {"bbox": [97, 907, 1133, 1065], "category": "Text", "text": "As stated in the MIP 2021-2027 for Nicaragua, the EU maintains a strong interest to preserve regional stability, deepen regional integration and prevent migration-related tensions in Central American region, out of the conviction and experience that intra-regional integration brings greater security, economic and social gains. To this end, it is proposed to address the migration crisis and more specifically to support the vulnerable Nicaraguans, currently economic migrants, refugees or asylum seekers, and other people in need of protection and economic opportunities in Costa Rica."}, {"bbox": [97, 1078, 1133, 1288], "category": "Text", "text": "Women and girls make up around half of all refugee, internally displaced or stateless population and those who are unaccompanied, pregnant, heads of households, disabled or elderly are especially vulnerable¹⁰. The issue of migrant women is emphasized in the EU Gender Action Plan III, where it is stated that the EU should ensure that the human rights of migrant women and girls are fully realised through gender-responsive migration policies, programmes and laws, and gender-responsive migration governance at global, regional and national levels reinforced. Furthermore, to leave no one behind, the EU GAP III seeks to tackle all intersecting dimensions of discrimination, paying specific attention for example to women with disabilities, migrant women, and discrimination based on age or sexual orientation."}, {"bbox": [97, 1291, 1133, 1369], "category": "Text", "text": "Under the principles of the EU GAP III, the EU seeks to ensure that migration-management programmes are gender-responsive through protection and prevention measures to address the risks for women and girls of gender-based violence, trafficking in human being and sexual exploitation."}, {"bbox": [86, 1434, 458, 1458], "category": "Footnote", "text": "⁷ https://www.wfp.org/countries/nicaragua"}, {"bbox": [86, 1457, 1143, 1528], "category": "Footnote", "text": "⁸ For instance, the uprising against the Somoza dictatorship (1937-1979); the 1972 earthquake; the Sandinista revolution and the Contra war (1979-1990), the transition to liberal democracy following the 1990 elections; and the current political conflict (2018 onwards)."}, {"bbox": [86, 1529, 853, 1554], "category": "Footnote", "text": "⁹ https://confidencial.digital/english/year-of-the-exodus-328000-nicaraguans-left-in-2022/"}, {"bbox": [86, 1578, 1133, 1646], "category": "Footnote", "text": "¹⁰ https://www.unhcr.org/what-we-do/how-we-work/safeguarding-individuals/women#:~:text=Women%20and%20girls%20make%20up%20around%2050%20per,%20households%2C%20disabled%20or%20elderly%20are%20especially%20vulnerable."}, {"bbox": [1028, 1656, 1143, 1681], "category": "Page-footer", "text": "Page 5 of 25"}]