This project, "Strengthening the Identification and Referral of Persons Applying for Refugee Status and/or with Profiles of Special Vulnerability through the Modernization of Costa Rica's Refugee Unit Platform," is financed by the MIRPS Fund. 

In recent years, there has been an accelerated growth in applications for recognition of refugee status, including, in 2021, Costa Rica became the fourth country in the world with the highest number of pending applications for recognition of refugee status. In that sense, currently, the appointment to formalize the application is taking place within a period that varies from two to six months; in fact, applications for 2017 are currently being solved . 

This context, in addition to the default itself, generates two particular problems:

• Detect and serve in reasonable times the people who are effectively deserving of international protection, and
• Detect and appropriately refer to other programs or institutions people in situation of special vulnerability (whether or not they deserve recognition of refugee status), such as people with disabilities, elderly people, indigenous peoples, gender based violence victims, unaccompanied children and adolescents, among others . 

In accordance with above mentioned, the purpose of this project is to ensure that people with specific profiles or particular situations of vulnerability are attended to in a faster process and appropriately referred to other institutions specialized in various populations in vulnerable situations. 

Based on this, as immediate results, this project proposes carrying out an assessment of the current flows of asylum seekers and implementing improvements to the process flow for adequate attention and referral, directly benefiting around 23,000 asylum seekers deserving of international protection, as well as around 10,000 asylum seekers (whether deserving or not of protection) with some type of vulnerability, located in the entire territory of the country.