Group of 65 migrants reaches Panama City after being released from the Darien, a dangerous jungle region near Colombia.
Panama has released 65 migrants who were held for weeks in a remote camp after being deported from the United States, telling them they have at least 30 days to leave the Central American nation.
Authorities said the people released on Saturday will have the option of extending their stay in Panama up to 90 days if needed, allowing them to begin the legal process for resettlement or voluntary return to their homeland.
The group was released from the Darien, a dangerous jungle region near the border with Colombia and a key transit route for many migrants crossing from South America on foot. They had been in the camp since mid-February after their deportation from the US.
Rights groups argue the release was a way for Panama to wash its hands of responsibility amid mounting human rights criticism.
Many of the released migrants say they were fleeing violence and repression in China, Russia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Nepal, and other countries.
As part of the US administration’s policy of ramping up migrant deportations, Panama reached a deal with Washington under which it received the deported third-country migrants, taking over the responsibility for their repatriation or resettlement.
Immigration advocates and rights groups have denounced the arrangement as cruel, as it allows for the US to export its deportation process.
The agreement also prompted human rights concerns when hundreds of deportees detained in a hotel in Panama City held up notes to their windows pleading for help and saying they were scared to return to their countries.
Under international refugee law, people have the right to apply for asylum when they are fleeing conflict or persecution, and they cannot be forcibly sent back home.
Those deported migrants who refused to return to their home countries, however, were sent to Darien, where they spent weeks in poor conditions, had their phones taken away, were unable to access legal counsel and were not told where they were going next.
Among those who got off one of the buses carrying the released migrants on Saturday was 27-year-old Nikita Gaponov. He fled Russia due to repression for being part of the LGBTQ+ community and said he was detained at the US border but not allowed to make an asylum claim.
Hayatullah Omagh, a 29-year-old who fled Afghanistan in 2022 after the Taliban took control, was released on Saturday and is also in legal limbo, scrambling to find a path forward without having to return to his homeland.
“I can’t go back to Afghanistan under any circumstances … It is under the control of the Taliban, and they want to kill me. How can I go back?”
Panamanian authorities also denied accusations of ill-treatment of the migrants, but blocked journalists from accessing the camp and cancelled a planned press visit last week.