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Deportees are now being detained in a Panamanian hotel and will be transferred to a facility near the Darien gap until repatriation is done.
Migrants deported from the US place papers with a written message in the window of the Decapolis Hotel where they are temporarily staying in Panama City. (IMAGE: AFP)
At least 300 people, including Indians, are being detained in a Panama hotel as they await their repatriation after being deported by the US after President Donald Trump launched a drive to deport illegal immigrants.
The detainees were not allowed to leave as the Panamanian government is waiting for international authorities to organize a return to their countries.
More than 40% of the migrants, authorities told the Associated Press, won’t voluntarily return to their homeland. Migrants in the hotel rooms held messages to the windows reading “Help” and “We are not save (sic) in our country.”
The migrants hailed from 10 mostly Asian countries, including Iran, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Afghanistan, China and others. The US has difficulty deporting directly to some of those countries so Panama is being used as a stopover. Costa Rica was expected to receive a similar flight of third-country deportees on Wednesday.
Panama’s Security Minister Frank Abrego said Tuesday the migrants are receiving medical attention and food as part of a migration agreement between Panama and the US.
The Panamanian government has now agreed to serve as a “bridge” or transit country for deportees, while the US bears all the costs of the operation. The agreement was announced earlier this month after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s visit.
Abrego said that 171 of the 299 deportees have agreed to return voluntarily to their respective countries with help from the International Organization for Migration and the UN Refugee Agency. UN agencies are talking with the other 128 migrants in an effort to find a destination for them in third countries. Abrego said that one deported Irish citizen has already returned to her country.
Those who do not agree to return to their countries will be temporarily held in a facility in the remote Darien province through which hundreds of thousands of migrants have crossed on their journey north in recent years, Abrego said.
- Location :
Panama City, Panama
