Rights groups fear for migrants' safety if they are returned to violent country

20/2/2025 6:06

A group of migrants

deported from the U.S. to Panama last week were moved on Tuesday

night from a hotel in the capital to the Darien jungle region in

the south of the country, a lawyer representing a migrant family

told Reuters on Wednesday.



Susana Sabalza, a Panamanian migration lawyer, said the

family she represents was transferred to Meteti, a town in the

Darien, along with other deported migrants.

La Estrella de Panama, a local daily, reported on Wednesday that

170 of the 299 migrants who had been in the hotel were moved to

the Darien.



Panama's government did not respond to a request for

comment.



The 299 migrants have been staying at a hotel in Panama City

under the protection of local authorities and with the financial

support of the United States through the U.N.-related

International Organization for Migration and the U.N. 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 U.S. 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 U.S. illegally.



One of the challenges to Trump's plan is that some migrants

come from countries that refuse to accept U.S. deportation

flights, due to strained diplomatic relations or other reasons.

The arrangement with Panama allows the U.S. to deport these

nationalities and makes it Panama's responsibility to organize

their onward repatriation.

The process has been criticized 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.



Sabalza said she had not been able to see her clients while

they were held at the hotel in Panama City and said she 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.



Sabalza said the family would be requesting asylum in Panama

or "any country that will receive them other than their own."

Mulino said previously the migrants would be moved to a shelter

in the Darien region, which includes the dense and lawless

jungle separating Central America from South America that has in

recent years become a corridor for hundreds of thousands of

migrants aiming to reach the United States.

Panama's security minister said on Tuesday that more than half

of the migrants deported from the United States in recent days

had accepted voluntary repatriations to their home countries.



On Wednesday morning the hotel in Panama City where the

migrants had been held appeared quiet, according to a Reuters

witness.



On Tuesday 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.



On Wednesday, Panama's migration service said in a statement

that a Chinese national, Zheng Lijuan, had escaped from the

hotel. It asked that Lijuan return and accused unspecified

people outside the hotel of aiding his escape.