Costa Rica has become one of the biggest recipients of third-country nationals deported from the United States. While tourists arrive at Juan Santamaría International Airport outside San José for yoga and eco-tourism, another kind of flight lands weekly carrying men, women and sometimes children in restraints. Many didn't know where they were going until they boarded the plane.

Since the beginning of last year, the U.S. government has sent more than 600 men, women and children from dozens of countries to this tiny Central American nation where they have few or no ties. They are shuttled to hotels and face limited options: go back to the place they left, find another way to leave, or stay with no family, no job and no idea what to do next.

The second Trump administration has deported over 25,000 migrants to 29 so-called "third countries" under different legal mechanisms, according to Refugees International and Human Rights First. Many came to the United States seeking safety or had already been granted protection in U.S. courts. These arrangements are undermining the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 protocol, a bedrock of international law that for 75 years has pledged not to send people fleeing danger back to jeopardy.