Panama’s President Jose Raul Mulino has confirmed that his Central American nation has received the first US flight carrying deportees from other nations as the American administration takes Panama up on its offer to act as a ‘stopover’ for expelled migrants, local and foreign media reported.
In his weekly press briefing in Panama City, he said that there were migrants from Pakistan, China, Uzbekistan, and Afghanistan aboard. He said that it was the first of three planned flights that were expected to total about 360 people. “It’s not something massive,” he said. The migrants were expected to be moved to a shelter in Panama’s Darien region before being returned to their countries, the president said.
US admin takes Panama up on its offer to act as a ‘stopover’ for expelled migrants
Last week, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with President Jose Mulino who discussed Panama’s efforts to slow migration through the Darien Gap and offered Panama as a bridge to send US deportees back to their countries. I is pertinent to mention ere that migration through the Darien Gap connecting Panama and Colombia was down about 90% in January compared to the same month a year earlier.
To a question, President Jose Mulino said that two more US Air Force flights were expected to bring a total of about 360 deported migrants to Panama. He said that he expected they would quickly be flown to their countries of origin from Darien in an effort that would be paid for entirely by the United States. He did not give a timeline for when the other flights were scheduled to arrive.
Migration at the southern US border has shifted in recent years to include not just people coming from Mexico and Central America but also those from a wider range of countries, including ones that either do not accept deportation flights or take them sparingly, it was pointed out. The US administration has already received promises from El Salvador and Guatemala to accept migrants of other nationalities.
Two more US Air Force flights likely to bring a total of 360 deported migrants to Panama
American officials have indicated they are discussing similar deals with other countries. But critics noted that the United States could be sending migrants into more dangerous conditions. For example, El Salvador has been accused of widespread human rights violations in its detentions, and Guatemala has one of the highest rates of violent crime in the world.
After meeting with Rubio this month, the Panamanian president had also indicated a willingness to receive deportees from other countries. “We are completely certain that reverse immigrants will come at some point — that is, they will be sent back either along the same route or because the United States will bring them back to deport them from here,” he said.
In Panama, the government has been under greater pressure than other Latin American countries to show it is on board with President Donald Trump’s priorities for the region, including curbing China’s influence and controlling illegal migration. President Trump has focused on what he sees as China’s role in the Panama Canal and threatened that the United States would retake control of it.
