By Megan Janetsky, Alma Solís and Matías Delacroix
Panama City (AP) – After weeks of human rights prosecution and criticism, Panama published dozens of migrants on Saturday who were detained for weeks in a distant camp after being expelled from the United States, telling them that they had 30 days to leave the Nation of Central America.
He pushed a lot like Hayatullah Omagh, a 29 -year -old man who fled Afghanistan in 2022 after the Taliban took control, in a legal limb, rushing to find a way to go.
“We are refugees. We have no money. We cannot pay for a hotel in Panama City, we do not have parents, “Omagh told the Associated Press in an interview. “In any case, I cannot go back to Afghanistan … it’s under the control of the Taliban, and they want to kill me. How can I go back?
The authorities said that the deportees will have the opportunity to extend their 60 -day stay if they needed it, but after many like Omagh do not know what they will do.
Omagh left a bus in the city of Panama alongside 65 migrants from China, Russia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Nepal and other nations after spending weeks detained in poor conditions by the Panamanian government, who declared that he wanted to work with the Trump administration “to send a deterrent” to migrate people.
Human rights groups and lawyers who defended migrants were waiting at the bus station and rushed to find the refuge of liberated migrants and other resources. Dozens of other people stayed in the camp.
Among those who descend buses were migrants fleeing violence and repression in Pakistan and Iran, and Nikita Gaponov, 27, who fled Russia because of the repression for having been part of the LGBTQ + community and who declared that he had been detained on the American border, but not authorized to make an asylum.
“Once I got off the bus, I’m going to sleep on the ground tonight,” said Gaponov.
Others turned their eyes to the north once again, saying that even if they had already been expelled, they had no other options than to continue after crossing the world to reach the United States
The deportees, largely of Asian countries, were part of an agreement between the Trump administration and Panama and Costa Rica while the US government is trying to accelerate deportations. The administration has sent hundreds of people, many families with children, to the two countries of Central America as a stopover while the authorities organize a way to send them back to their country of origin.
Critics have described it as a means for the United States to export its expulsion process.
The agreement has fueled human rights concerns when hundreds of deportees held in a hotel in the city of Panama have held notes at their windows by pleading to get help and say they were afraid of returning to their own country.
Under international refugee law, people have the right to request asylum when they flee conflicts or persecution.
Those who refused to return home were then sent to a distant camp near the Panama border with Colombia, where they spent weeks in poor conditions, were stripped of their phones, unable to access the legal advice and were not informed where they then went.
Lawyers and human rights defenders have warned that Panama and Costa Rica turned into “black holes” for deportees, and said their release was a means for the Panamanian authorities to wash their hands in the deportees in the midst of human rights criticism.
After being released on Saturday evening, human rights lawyers identified at least three people who needed medical care. One of the vomiting for more than a week, another deporter suffered from diabetes and had not had access to insulin in the camp and another person had HIV and also had access to detention medicine.
Those who were released, like Omagh, said they could not go home.
As an alder and member of a group of ethnic minorities in Afghanistan known as Hazara, he declared to return home during the Taliban reign – who resumed power after the Biden administration withdraws from the country – would mean that he would be killed. He only went to the United States after trying for years to live in Pakistan, Iran and other countries, but he was denied visas.
Omagh was expelled after presenting himself to the American authorities and asked to ask for asylum in the United States, which was refused.
“My hope was freedom. Just freedom, “he said. “They didn’t give me a chance. I have repeatedly asked to speak to an asylum officer and they said to me “no, no, no, no, no”. »»
However, he said that leaving the camp was a relief. Omagh and other migrants who spoke to the rare detailed food of the AP, stifling heat with little relief and aggressive Panamanian authorities.
In one case, Omagh and others said that a Chinese has been a week’s hunger strike. In another, a small riot broke out because the guards refused to give a migrant their phone. The riot, she said, was removed by armed guards.
Panamanian authorities have denied charges on camp conditions, but prevented journalists from accessing the camp and canceled a press visit scheduled for last week.
While international aid organizations have said that they would organize trips to a third country for people who did not want to return home, the Panamanian authorities said that liberated people had already refused aid.
Omagh said he had been informed in the camp that he could be sent to a third country if he gave people in Afghanistan visas. He said it would be incredibly difficult because few nations open their doors to people with an Afghan passport.
He said he had asked the authorities in the camp several times if he could seek asylum in Panama and said it was said that “we do not accept asylum”.
“None of them wants to stay in Panama. They want to go to the United States, “said Carlos RuiZ-Hernandez, Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs in Panama, in an interview with the AP last month.
This was the case for some, like a Chinese woman who spoke at the AD on condition of anonymity, fearing the repercussions of the Panamanian authorities.
Going down from the bus, the first thing she wanted to do was find a Coca-Cola. Then she would find a way back to the United States
“I always want to continue going to the United States and realizing my American dream,” she said.
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Janetsky reported to Mexico City.
Originally published:
California Daily Newspapers
