Q24N (EFE) The Panamanian government will grant a temporary humanitarian permit to 112 irregular migrants deported by the United States under a bilateral agreement, so they can leave the shelter where they are being held and process their departure from the country, either through repatriation or acceptance by a third nation.
This permit will be for 30 days, extendable to 90, said Public Security Minister Frank Ábrego in statements to reporters on Friday.
The migrants, nationals of non-continental countries, will also have access to a lawyer, added the head of Panama’s Ministry of Public Security.
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Last February, Panama received 299 irregular migrants from outside the continent sent by the US under an agreement that made it a “bridge” country for their repatriation.
Of those 299 people, “177 have already returned voluntarily (to their countries) and 10 are waiting to take their flight home. There are 112 who have not agreed to take the voluntary flight home because they have told the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) that they feel it is dangerous to return, and they invariably do not want to return to a third country,” Ábrego explained.
The 112 migrants are “protected” in the San Vicente immigration shelter, in the Darién province, bordering Colombia, and the temporary permit will allow them to go to the Panamanian capital or another national city to process their voluntary departure from the country.
“I understand that they have refused to accept assistance from the IOM and UNHCR because they want to do it on their own, which they have expressed,” said the Panamanian Minister of Public Security.
The local press reported last week that Panama was sued before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) for allegedly violating the rights of people deported by the US.
Reverse Migration Flow Figures
So far this year, some 3,100 people have entered Panama through the border with Costa Rica heading south, after their attempts to enter the United States were thwarted, Ábrego revealed.
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This is the number that “we have been able to count together with Costa Rica” within the framework of the joint operation to address this growing reverse flow of migrants.
Costa Rican authorities receive migrants in transit southbound at the Temporary Migrant Care Center (CATEM), located in the town of Corredores, near the common border. Panamanian buses pick them up and take them to the port of Miramar (Panama), where they board a boat to the Panamanian community of La Miel, from where they depart for the Colombian community of Sapzurro, Ábrego stated.
The minister also stated that the decline in the migratory flow from south to north continues, stating that “yesterday (Thursday) no one entered,” the day before, “13 entered, and the day before that, zero.”
On February 28, Panamanian authorities reported a “96% decrease” in the number of migrants entering the Darien jungle, the natural border with Colombia, so far this year. Only 2,637 people had crossed, compared to 72,294 during the same period in 2024.
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In recent years, the largest migration flow in Panama has been from south to north through the jungle, reaching a record number of more than 520,000 migrants in 2023, while by 2024 the number had fallen to 300,000.
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