Migrants in Panama deported from US moved to Darien jungle region
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A group of migrants deported from the US to Panama last week were moved on the night of Feb 18 from a hotel in the capital to the Darien jungle region in the south of the country.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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PANAMA CITY – A group of nearly 100 migrants deported from the US to Panama last week has been moved from a hotel in the capital to the Darien jungle region in the south of the country, Panama’s government said on Feb 19.
Panama’s Security Ministry said that of the 299 migrants deported from the US in recent days, 13 had been repatriated to their countries of origin, while another 175 remained in the hotel in Panama City awaiting onward journeys after agreeing to return home.
The migrants have been staying at the hotel under the protection of local authorities and with the financial support of the US through the UN-related International Organisation for Migration and the UN refugee agency, according to the Panamanian government.
The migrants include people from Afghanistan, China, India, Iran, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Turkey, Uzbekistan and Vietnam, according to Panama’s President Jose Raul Mulino, who has agreed with the US to receive non-Panamanian deportees.
The deportation of non-Panamanian migrants to Panama is part of the Trump administration’s attempt to ramp up deportations of migrants living in the US illegally.
One of the challenges to Mr Trump’s plan is that some migrants come from countries that refuse to accept US deportation flights, due to strained diplomatic relations or other reasons.
The arrangement with Panama allows the US to deport these nationalities and makes it Panama’s responsibility to organise their onward repatriation.
The process has been criticised by human rights groups that worry migrants could be mistreated and also fear for their safety if they are ultimately returned to violent or war-torn countries of origin, such as Afghanistan.
Ms Susana Sabalza, a Panamanian migration lawyer representing one of the families transferred to the San Vicente shelter in the Darien region, said she had not been able to see her clients while they were held at the hotel in Panama City and is seeking permission to visit them at their new location.
She declined to identify their nationality but said they were a Muslim family who “could be decapitated” if they returned home.
She added that the family would be requesting asylum in Panama or “any country that will receive them other than their own”.
The Security Ministry statement said 97 migrants had been transferred to the shelter in the Darien region, which includes dense and lawless jungle separating Central America from South America.
In recent years, it has become a corridor for hundreds of thousands of migrants aiming to reach the US. Eight more migrants would be moved there soon, the statement added.
On the morning of Feb 19, the hotel in Panama City where the migrants had been held appeared quiet, according to a Reuters witness.
On Feb 18, some migrants had been seen holding hands and looking out a window of the hotel to get the attention of reporters outside.
Migrants in the hotel were not allowed to leave, according to media reports.
Chinese national Zheng Lijuan escaped from the hotel, according to Panama’s migration service, but was later caught in Costa Rica and returned to Panama. REUTERS
