Migrants deported by U.S. moved to Panama jungle facility

Migrants wait outside an immigration post after trekking across the Darien Gap, in Lajas Blancas, Panama, Sunday, Nov. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

PANAMA CITY, Panama -- Nearly 100 migrants deported by the United States to Panama have been moved to a remote facility in the Darien jungle where they will stay until they are moved to another country, Panama’s security ministry said.

Panama, Costa Rica and Guatemala have all agreed to receive migrants from other nations expelled by the United States and hold them until they are repatriated or sent to other host nations.

The Central American nations agreed following a recent tour of the region by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and after President Donald Trump threatened to take back the Panama Canal if Panama did not limit alleged Chinese influence over the operation of the critical waterway.

For several days, about 300 migrants, mostly from Asia, had been held in a hotel in the capital Panama City.

“So far, 97 (deported migrants) have been transferred to the San Vicente shelter” in Darien province, on the border with Colombia, Panama’s security ministry said Wednesday in a statement.

The facility near Meteti, a town 230 kilometres (143 miles) east of the capital, was until now used by migrants entering Panama from Colombia after crossing the dangerous jungle on their way north to the US border.

Of the 299 migrants deported from the United States in recent days, 175 have opted to voluntarily return to their country and are still at the Decapolis hotel in Panama City, the ministry said.

“So far 41 air tickets have been purchased” including 17 to India, nine to Turkey and eight to China, it added.

Panama’s government on Tuesday denied that migrants it received were being held against their will, after some displayed handwritten signs at hotel windows with messages such as “We are not safe in our country.”

One Chinese national escaped from the hotel but was found in Costa Rica and returned to Panama, Panamanian authorities said.

Public Security Minister Frank Abrego said this week that migrants who do not go home voluntarily would be transferred to the Darien facility, while the International Organization for Migration and the UN refugee agency organize their relocation to another country.

Costa Rica’s President Rodrigo Chaves, meanwhile, said his country will receive 50 children Thursday among 200 Asian migrants deported by the United States, vowing to “treat them well.”