Immigrant group seeks respect from lawmakers

Members of the Naturalized  Residents Association of Panama (Arena), collecting signatures for an appeal to the National Assembly after what have been described as xenophobic and Trump-like moves by a deputy, had to move away on Sunday morning after being confronted by an anti-immigrant group at the National Assembly.

The signatures will be attached to request that they intend to take to the office of the president of the National Assembly (AN), Marcos Castillero.

Rafael Rodrígez, leader of Arena, said that in the request they will ask that the issue be treated with respect and that derogatory words are not used to refer to migrants.

Foreigners of different nationalities arrived at the Assembly to sign the application but they were met by a group of who support the initiative that has presented by deputy Zulay Rodríguez.

To avoid confrontations, they moved to their premises, on Via Espana to carry out the collection of signatures.

Rodríguez, presented on Tuesday, July 9, a draft bill that “seeks, adds and reforms” the National Migration Service.

Rodriguez described the project as “quite hard”, because you have to have immigration controls before the saturation of labor and public services

She says that a million foreigners have arrived since 2016 of which 146,000 are Venezuelans with refugee status.