Panama detains 300 migrants deported from US

Syrian refugees rest inside the Temporary Accommodation Centre in Kokkinotrimithia, some 20 kilometres outside the Cypriot capital Nicosia on November 5, 2019. [Photo by IAKOVOS HATZISTAVROU/AFP via Getty Images]

Nearly 300 migrants, deported from the US and originating from countries such as Iran, China, Afghanistan and Syria, are currently being held at a hotel in Panama while international authorities coordinate their return to their home countries.

The Trump administration has been putting pressure on Latin American nations to accept these deported migrants as part of its broader strategy to curb unauthorised immigration.

After a visit by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio earlier this month, Panama agreed to serve as a transit country for the deportees, with the US covering all related expenses.

Initially, Panama’s President Jose Raul Mulino had planned to transfer the detainees to a migrant shelter in Darien, eastern Panama – site of the famed Darian Gap – from where they would be repatriated to their countries. Although the transfer was initially scheduled for yesterday, recent reports from Honduran news outlet La Prensa indicate that the plan has been altered.

Panama’s Minister of Public Security, Frank Abrego, confirmed that 171 of the 299 deportees have voluntarily agreed to return to their home countries with support from the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and the UNHCR, the UN refugee agency.

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