"World’s largest pencil maker accuses Costa Rica of misusing old factory as detention center", 09 February 2026

...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...used to have a factory in the southern part of Costa Rica, bordering Panama and supplied by trees cultivated in the region.

But it closed it down in 2013 because of adverse economic factors, and in 2018 the facility was gifted to Costa Rica by Faber-Castell. In a contract between the company and the ministry of public security, shared with the Guardian, Faber-Castell specified that the premises would be used as a shelter to offer refuge and humanitarian assistance for people migrating through the region.

However, last year it appears conditions at the facility changed and people were locked up, with Faber-Castell unaware of this until contacted by the Guardian last month...

The company said in the contract that the property was to be used to “house a shelter for the care of migrants … without the possibility of changing the purpose of the property”...

When the Guardian approached Faber-Castell for comment, the company said it had not realized anyone had been detained at Catem.

“We agreed and stipulated in the contract that the building was to be transformed into a humanitarian refugee center, and under no circumstances was it agreed to be used as a prison,” representatives of Faber-Castell’s large subsidiary in Brazil said in a statement...

The people, including more than 70 children, were detained there for at least two months. Amid legal challenges, Costa Rica’s constitutional branch of the supreme court later ruled they were “deprived of their right to liberty”. The Costa Rican ministry of public security told the Guardian it “categorically” denied this.

Faber-Castell emailed a statement to the Guardian: “We are deeply concerned that people are reportedly being detained on our former factory site of ‘Maderin Eco’ in Costa Rica, an operation which we closed in 2013. We were not aware of this misuse until we were contacted by the Guardian.” Maderin Eco refers to the subsidiary of Faber-Castell that had operated in Costa Rica...

Faber-Castell did not answer questions about whether it intended to take any further action...