Panama President Mulino on Migrants Deported from the US
Panama City: In light of the speculation surrounding the memorandum of understanding that promotes collaboration in the management of migration with the United States, the President of the Republic, José Raúl Mulino, clarified that it currently only deals with 299 irregular migrants who have already arrived on three flights and that no new entries have been approved from there. Three migrants deported from the US request refuge in Panama. He stressed that the process does not have an agenda such as “anything hidden” and asked the general public to “leave morbid curiosity for something other than this subject.”
Migrants in the Decápolis Hotel in Panama City try to catch the attention of those outside
According to the government, this group will be transferred to a camp in the province of Darién, which has temporarily housed migrants crossing the jungle en route to the US. On a normal day, tourists can enter and leave the Decápolis Hotel with ease, but now heavily armed members of the Panamanian National Aeronaval Service enforce strict security measures inside and outside of the building. In a window pictured above, a group of adults and three children raise their arms with their thumbs in their palms – the international symbol for those needing assistance. “Help us,” is written in red letters on the glass. And two children with their faces covered hold up sheets of paper against the glass with the message: “Please save the Afghan girls.”
From the street, laundry can be seen hanging in a window. One of the items is a yellow Los Angeles Lakers basketball jersey number 24 worn by legendary player Kobe Bryant
An Iranian woman who has lived in Panama for a number of years said she was in contact with one of the migrants inside the hotel. She said they were “terrified” of the possibility of being returned to Iran. The woman said she went to the hotel to offer her help as a Farsi translator but was told they already had one. People inside the hotel said that was not true. Using a hidden mobile phone, since contact with those outside of the Decápolis Hotel is not allowed, the Iranian woman said the migrant told her there were several children in the hotel, that they have been denied a lawyer and that they are not allowed to leave their rooms even to eat. After the story of the deportees being held at the hotel was first reported on Tuesday, the security measures put in place were tightened and migrants’ access to the internet was cut off, the woman said.
The president explained that, of the group of migrants deported by the United States to be later repatriated to their countries of origin, 157 are women and 142 are men. Within the group, there are 12 family groups and 24 children. So far, 13 of them have left the country, through a voluntary return. As for the Chinese citizen, she had escaped from the provisional reception center for migrants in transit. He reiterated that she had already been rescued in Costa Rican territory, but she still remains in the national territory.
A total of 97 of the migrants are already in Darien awaiting transfer, and another 8 will be transferred to the province in the following hours. Meanwhile, four other migrants are in the process of purchasing tickets and a fifth is injured. Meanwhile, 175 remain in a local hotel awaiting their voluntary return. For now, the president explained, 41 plane tickets will be purchased for Turkey (9), India (17), China (8), Georgia (5), Nepal (1), Kosovo (1). He clarified that the purchase of tickets does not represent any expense for Panama, since it is the International Organization for Migration (IOM) that is carrying out the project, covering 100% of the expenses. On the other hand, regarding the old migratory flow coming from the South, Mulino commented that the situation is quite under control and the migrants do not even reach 250, compared to February 2024, when more than 1,000 had entered the country.
“It is false that this violates laws or agreements… International cooperation between countries is a matter of reciprocity in most cases and I am surprised that, in this case, the migrants are coming from the opposite direction; that is when they raise their voices. We had tens of thousands in the Darien a year ago and nobody said anything.”— José Raúl Mulino – President of the Republic
