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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Justo Robles in San José, Costa Rica

World’s largest pencil maker accuses Costa Rica of misusing old factory as detention center

people walking
Migrants walk at the Temporary Care Centre for Migrants (Catem) in Paso Canoas, about 300km south of San José, in Puntarenas province, on 27 September 2023. Photograph: Ezequiel Becerra/AFP/Getty Images

The world’s largest pencil maker has accused the Costa Rican government of misusing an old factory that the German manufacturer donated for humanitarian purposes – by detaining asylum seekers there who were deported from the US by the Trump administration last year.

Faber-Castell produces more than 2bn wooden pencils a year worldwide and used to have a factory in the southern part of Costa Rica, bordering Panama and supplied by trees cultivated in the region.

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