La ministra Elma Saiz se reúne con el ministro de Relaciones Exteriores y Culto de Costa Rica para avanzar en el Convenio Bilateral de Seguridad Social

Minister Elma Saiz has held a working meeting with the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Worship of Costa Rica, Arnoldo André, to advance the negotiations of the Bilateral Agreement on Social Security between the two countries.

Both ministerial leaders have expressed a firm commitment to address the key points of the agreement, with the aim of benefiting the citizens of both countries on issues essential to guarantee the rights of their workers.

The final text of the Convention is closer, after agreeing on important issues such as the totalisation of the insurance period and the posting of workers, as well as the contribution for professional contingencies. Progress has also been made on specific provisions to strengthen bilateral cooperation in the field of Social Security.

Today’s meeting between the two ministerial leaders culminates the series of meetings of the delegations of the two countries that have achieved understandings on most of the points negotiated.

Good practices in the field of inclusion have also been exchanged, highlighting the recent conclusions of the Social Policy Laboratory and which the Government of Spain has summarized in a decalogue of recommendations that Saiz has given to Minister André.

National Refugee Resettlement Programme

On the other hand, Elma Saiz reiterated to the Costa Rican minister the commitment of Spain to support the countries of first reception of refugees. As a result of the trilateral agreement between Spain, the United States and Canada, our country last year received almost 300 Nicaraguan refugees from Costa Rica for resettlement, an involvement that has been thanked by Minister André.

Thanks to these complementary routes to resettlement, almost 80 Nicaraguans and their families are being trained to work in a solar plate company in a town of Valladolid, fulfilling two of the objectives of these routes: to cover the lack of labor in certain sectors and help depopulation.

In addition, on a trip to Washington last January, Minister Elma Saiz extended the commitment of the Government of Spain to receive another 500 people, who must be selected with the help of UNHCR and the International Organization of Migration (IOM). On his last visit to the United States, just a few days ago, Saiz announced that he had formally requested UNHCR to begin the reconnaissance work to welcome them to Spain as soon as possible.