Panama to allow 112 migrants deported from the US to move about freely in the country
PANAMA CITY (AP) — Panama announced Friday that it will allow 112 migrants deported from the United States who have been held in a remote camp in the Darien region since last month to move about the country freely until they decide on their next course of action.
The government cited humanitarian reasons for the decision but rights lawyers promptly expressed concerns that this could be a tactic to absolve the authorities of international scrutiny for their treatment of migrants while also putting them in more danger.
Panama’s Security Minister Frank Ábrego said the migrants — from a number of mostly Asian nations — would be granted temporary humanitarian passes as documents. They would find their own places to stay while they decide where they are going next, Ábrego said, without elaborating.
The passes would last for an initial 30 days but could be renewed, he added.
“They have exactly 30 days to figure out how to leave Panama, because they refused … to accept help from the (International Organization for Migration) and (the U.N. Refugee Agency) and said that they wanted to do it themselves,” Ábrego said, speaking to reporters outside a security conference Friday.
“Panama has decided to respect this,” he also said.
Panama has come under pressure from human rights groups for holding the migrants without their passports or cell phones in harsh conditions. Lawyers had petitioned the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights on their behalf.
Most of the migrants had been moved to the camp in San Vicente on Feb. 19, from a hotel in Panama City where they had initially been held under police guard. Migrants who agreed to voluntarily return to their countries remained at the hotel and those who didn’t were sent to the camp in the Darien.
Álvaro Botero, one of the lawyers who filed the petition, said his legal team was concerned the humanitarian permits are a way for Panamanian authorities to wash their hands of the deportees, many who fear for their safety in their own countries.
“Many of these people have legitimate claims to seek and receive asylum,” Botero’s said. “The option of deporting them is not the protection that these people deserve.”
While deportees were stripped of their phones by Panamanian authorities, a handful of people, including one who has spoken with The Associated Press, have been able to communicate secretly with hidden phones.
Botero’s team was informed by one of the migrants in the camp that they were given papers to sign for the 30-day permit. Signing the document apparently implied the migrants would accept the 30-day permit on the condition that they leave Panama after that period of time.
Botero’s team asked the client not to sign the document because the lawyers were unable to look into the text.
He also warned the permits may be an attempt by authorities to influence the outcome of the human rights petition next week.
“They want to report, ‘You know what, we already granted humanitarian permits to the people that were detained and they are no longer detained,’” he said.
The camp had originally been established for the hundreds of thousands of migrants crossing the treacherous Darien Gap between Colombia and Panama in recent years as they made their way toward the U.S. border.
President Donald Trump’s shutting down of access to asylum and other legal routes at the U.S. southern border in January forced many migrants already in transit to reconsider their options. Panama and Costa Rica have reported seeing a reverse flow of migration as migrants began moving south.
The U.S. had sent 299 migrants to Panama as the Trump administration tried to accelerate deportations as part of a deal in which countries like Panama and Costa Rica act as “bridges,” temporarily detaining deportees while they await return to their countries of origin or third countries.
Some of the migrants held in the hotel had held up handmade signs in their windows, asking for help.
At the camp, a migrant who had a hidden cell phone told an AP reporter they were sweltering, fighting ants and receiving no information about what would happen with them next.
Panamanian authorities have not responded to requests for comment about the conditions and have denied journalists access to the camps.
The migrant, who requested anonymity fearing for her safety, said last week that a small riot broke out because guards blocked a migrant from accessing their phone, information that was verified by lawyers speaking to another individual inside the camp. Authorities sent armed guards to suppress the riot, she said, and another migrant in the camp went on a days-long hunger strike.
“We are treated like prisoners here,” she said.
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Janetsky reported from Mexico City.
By ALMA SOLÍS and MEGAN JANETSKY
Associated Press
