Following their recent deportation by the United States to Panama, where they were imprisoned at a hotel, over 100 migrants were transferred to a detention camp on the edge of the forest on Tuesday night, according to a number of the migrants.
The duration of the group’s detention at the jungle camp is unknown; they were deported as part of the Trump administration’s massive campaign to drive out undocumented migrants.
According to the inmates, the location is in poor condition. The region is rife for diseases like dengue, and the government has prohibited humanitarian workers and media from entering.
One deportee, Artemis Ghasemzadeh, a 27-year-old Iranian immigrant, arrived to the camp after a four-hour trip from Panama City and said, “It looks like a zoo, there are fenced cages.” They handed us a slice of stale bread. We’re seated on the ground.
According to an individual with knowledge of the matter who was not permitted to talk on the record, the group consists of eight youngsters. According to attorneys, detaining someone in Panama for longer than twenty-four hours without a court warrant is unlawful.
Carlos Ruiz-Hernández, Panama’s deputy foreign minister, attested to the fact that 97 individuals had been sent to the camp. He declared, “They are not detainees.” “It is not a detention camp; it is a migrant camp where they will be cared for.”
During an aired interview with the TV show Panamá En Directo on Wednesday, Frank Ábrego, the country’s security minister, stated that officials were holding migrants “for their own protection.”
The relocation is the most recent development in a weekly story involving over 300 migrants who came to the US in the hopes of applying for asylum. Panama, which has consented to support President Trump’s plan to deport millions of unauthorized migrants, received the group.
The deal is a component of the Trump administration’s broader plan to outsource some of its most challenging immigration issues to foreign countries. For a variety of reasons, the US finds it difficult to deport citizens to nations like China, Iran, and Afghanistan.
