From Newsgroup: alt.fan.countries.panama

On 2/20/2025 2:13 AM, useapen wrote:

Nearly 100 migrants, recently deported by the United States to Panama
where they had been locked in a hotel, were loaded onto buses Tuesday
night and moved to a detention camp on the outskirts of the jungle,
several of the migrants said.

It is unclear how long the group, which was deported under the Trump administrationrCOs sweeping effort to expel unauthorized migrants, will be detained at the jungle camp.

Conditions at the site are primitive, the detainees said. Diseases,
including dengue are endemic to the region, and the government has denied access to journalists and aid organizations.

rCLIt looks like a zoo, there are fenced cages,rCY said one deportee, Artemis Ghasemzadeh, a 27-year-old migrant from Iran, after arriving at the camp following a four-hour drive from Panama City. rCLThey gave us a stale piece of bread. We are sitting on the floor.rCY

The group includes eight children, according to a person with knowledge of the situation who was not authorized to speak on the record. Lawyers have said it is illegal to detain people in Panama for more than 24 hours
without a court order.

PanamarCOs deputy foreign minister, Carlos Ruiz-Hern|indez, confirmed that 97 people had been transferred to the camp. rCLThey are not detainees,rCOrCO he said. rCLItrCOs a migrant camp where they will be taken care off rCo not a detention camp.rCY

Mr. Ruiz-Hern|indez said the camp was the best option available to the government for housing migrants and noted that the migrants had food,
water and access to medical and psychological care. He said there were no cages.

In a broadcast interview on Wednesday with the news program Panam|i En Directo, the countryrCOs security minister, Frank |Ubrego, said that migrants were being held by Panama rCLfor their own protectionrCY and because officials
rCLneed to verify who they are.rCY

The transfer is the latest move in a weeklong saga for a group of about
300 migrants who arrived in the United States hoping to to seek asylum.
The group was sent to Panama, which has agreed to aid President Trump in
his plan to deport millions of undocumented migrants.

The agreement is part of a larger strategy by the Trump administration to export some of its most difficult migration challenges to other nations.
The United States, for varying reasons, cannot easily deport people to countries like Afghanistan, Iran and China, but by applying intense
pressure it has managed to convince Panama to take some of them.

Last week, Mr. Ruiz-Hern|indez, the deputy foreign minister, said Panama
was complying with a direct request from the Trump administration to
accept the migrants.

Analysts say Panama is also under intense pressure from Mr. Trump, who has threatened to seize the Panama Canal over what he believes is Chinese influence in the waterway, a claim that PanamarCOs president has repeatedly refuted.

After being sent to Panama, the deported migrants are no longer subject to United States law.

Costa Rica is also taking some deportees, including migrants originally
from Central Asia and India, and has said it plans to repatriate them. A flight from the United States was expected to arrive in Costa Rica on Thursday.

Upon arrival in Panama City last week, the 300 or so migrants were taken
to a downtown hotel, called the Decapolis, and barred from leaving,
several of them told The New York Times in calls and text messages.

A lawyer seeking to represent many of them, Jenny Soto Fern|indez, was blocked at least four times from visiting them in the hotel, she said. At
the hotel, the United Nations International Organization for Migration has been speaking with migrants about their options, according to the
government, and offering flights to their home countries to those who want them.

Some, including a group of Iranian Christians and a man from China, told
The New York Times that they risk reprisals if returned to their native countries, and have refused to sign documents that would pave the way for their repatriation.

Under Iranian law, converting from Islam is considered apostasy and is a crime punishable by death.

On Tuesday morning, an article published by The Times attracted enormous attention to the migrantsrCO situation, and members of the Panamanian news media began surrounding the hotel.

That night, guards at the hotel told people to pack their bags, said Ms. Ghasemzadeh, one of the Christian converts from Iran. Several buses
arrived and guards led them aboard, as witnessed by a reporter working for The New York Times.

The migrants were initially told they would be taken to another hotel, Ms. Ghasemzadeh said, and some feared they were really being deported back to Iran.

Instead, the buses passed the airport and then snaked their way to a
highway, traveling out of Panama City, east and then farther east, to the province of Dari|-n.

Two migrants used their cellphones to share their real-time location with
The Times, allowing reporters to track their movements.

The camp where the 100 or so migrants will stay is called San Vicente, and sits at the end of a jungle, also called the Dari|-n, which links Panama to Colombia. The camp was built years ago as a stopover point for migrants coming north from Colombia through the Dari|-n jungle and into Panama, a harrowing part of the journey north to the United States.

Now, the Panamanian government is using it for deportees.

One Iranian woman, the mother of an 8-year-old, cried during the bus ride. Her child had been sick with a sore throat for days, she said, and the uncertainty and constant displacement was taking a toll on her.

Upon arrival, Ms. Ghasemzadeh said she could see large containers that appeared to be the migrantsrCO new homes. Officials instructed them to fill out forms with their names, and asked for fingerprints, she said.

On Tuesday, Mr. |Ubrego told reporters at a news conference that 170 of the 300 or so migrants had volunteered to be sent back to their countries of origin, journeys that would be arranged by the International Organization
for Migration. He described the decision to hold the migrants as part of
an accord with the United States.

rCLWhat we agreed with the United States government is that they remain and are in our temporary custody for their protection,rCY he said.

Responding to migrantsrCO accounts that many peoplerCOs cellphones and documents, including passports, had been confiscated, Mr. |Ubrego said that those items had been taken while the migrants were in U.S. custody.

On Wednesday he said that 12 people from Uzbekistan and India had been repatriated with the help of the International Organization for Migration.

Officials also said on Wednesday that one of the migrants in their
custody, a woman from China, had escaped from the hotel, where dozens of migrants remain.

In a message posted to X, the countryrCOs migration service asked for help
in finding her, saying the authorities feared she would fall into the
hands of human traffickers.

rCLAs a State security entity,rCY authorities wrote on X, rCLour commitment is
to combat illegal migration,rCY while complying with rCLnational and international principles and regulations on human rights.rCY

The Panamanian government has previously said the migrants had no criminal records.

Many migrants who remain in the hotel rCo including some from India and Eastern Europe rCo have signed documents authorizing their deportation and are expected to be sent to their countries of origin in the coming days.

On Wednesday morning, from the Dari|-n region, Ms. Ghasemzadeh described a sweltering encampment, overrun with cats and dogs.

Then, she sent a text message saying that she feared authorities would
soon take her phone. rCLPlease try to help us,rCY she said.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/19/world/americas/us-migrants-panama- jungle-camp.html

Thanks for the report. The migrants are better off in the tropical
jungle than in the bitter cold streets of New York, Chicago or Denver
right now.
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