Panama releases dozens of detained deportees from US into limbo

PANAMA CITY (AP) — After weeks of lawsuits and human rights criticism, Panama has released dozens of migrants who were held for weeks in a remote camp after being deported from the United States.

They were told they had 30 days to leave the Central American nation.

“We are refugees. We do not have money. We cannot pay for a hotel in Panama City, we do not have relatives,” Hayatullah Omagh, 29, told the Associated Press in an interview. “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?”

Authorities have said deportees will have the option of extending their stay by 60 days if they need it, but after that many like Omagh don’t know what they will do.

Some 65 migrants from China, Russia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Nepal and other nations spent weeks detained in poor conditions by the Panamanian government, which has said it wants to work with the Trump administration “to send a signal of deterrence” to people hoping to migrate.

The deportees, largely from Asian countries, were part of a deal stuck between the Trump administration and Panama and Costa Rica as the U.S. government attempts to speed up deportations. The administration sent hundreds of people, many families with children, to the two Central American countries as a stopover while authorities organize a way to send them back to their countries of origin.

The agreement fueled 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 own countries.

Upon being released Saturday night, human rights lawyers identified at least three people who required medical attention. One has been vomiting for over a week, another deportee had diabetes and hadn’t had access to insulin in the camp, and another person had HIV and also didn’t have access to medicine in detention.