Panama City
Cnn
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She asked to be identified only as “ambo”, for fear of being recognized in her country of origin.
“Life is very difficult for me,” she told CNN in a school that has become Shelter on a wet day in Panama City, Panama.
Above the ambient noise of Blade fans trying to cool the big piece, she explained that she had left her native country in Cameroon due to “political problems”, fearing that she was “condemned dead” or spends the rest of her life in prison if she stayed.
She remembers arriving at the American -Mexican border on January 23 – three days after the inauguration of the American president Trump – after having traveled central America and the dangerous jungle of Darién.
She turned to customs and the protection of the United States in the hope of asserting her arguments for asylum. According to her counting, she spent 19 days in police custody, then finally had this chance – at least that’s what she thought.
Just after midnight on February 13, by her memories, she and other migrants were loaded on a bus where they led for hours.
“We were so happy to think that they were going to transfer us to a camp where we are going to meet an immigration officer,” she recalls.
She still thought that when she was charged on a plane, believing that they were heading for another installation in the United States. But when they landed, they were in Panama.
“We ask them why are they bringing us to Panama?” Why are we in Panama? ” “She said,” people started crying. »»
Even again, she was optimistic.
“We are like thinking that the camp in the United States may be full. This is why they bring us here. When it is our turn, they will come to take us to give us a ear,” she said.
But the Panamanian government has taken them to a hotel in Panama City, well kept by security, no telephone and limited access to the outside world, according to several migrants to which CNN spoke. Panama Minister of Security, Frank ábrego, previously told a local radio program that the deportees had taken place at the hotel, in part, because those responsible should “effectively verify who are these people who arrive in our country”.
Even in a new country, under a new government authority, she kept the hope that someone from the US government will intervene and will repair the situation.
“We were in a way happy that the immigration of the United States comes to Panama to listen to our stories,” she told CNN, now fighting with tears.
“This was not the case.” His voice crashed, recalling the moment when his optimism broke.
This is the reality of an increased repression of immigration to the United States, that the Trump administration has put pressure on the countries of Latin America such as Panama, Costa Rica and Salvador to help.
A few days before his arrival at the border, Trump had signed an executive decree effectively closing the American-mexic border against migrants in search of asylum in the United States. A few weeks later, the Panamanian government agreed to receive some of these migrants, at least temporarily, and took nearly 300.
Many are asylum seekers like Iran, Afghanistan, Russia, China, Sri Lanka. They are now taken in the limbo – expelled from the United States, but unable to return to their country of origin for fear of being persecuted or killed.
“They shouldn’t just abandon us like that without telling us what we have done wrong. It becomes very, very difficult and confusing for us. I left my children at home,” said Ambo through tears.
Another woman in Ethiopia was on a similar flight. She also asked not to use her name for fear of reprisals in her country of origin.
“I’m so shocked. I say it’s Texas or Panama? ” She recalled.
She told CNN that she had also traveled central America, injuring her leg in the Darién jungle, to reach the American-Mexican border. She said that she had also left Ethiopia due to political problems and feared to come back.
“I have no family. They are already dead, ”she told CNN.
And another asylum seeker migrant, Afghanistan, who did not want to share his identity, told Elizabeth Gonzalez de CNN in Español that if he were to return to Afghanistan, he would be killed by the Taliban.
They all live in a humble shelter now, one of the multiple places in Panama where these migrants are trying to sail in life, in a country where they do not speak the language.
“Almost we are all in different countries, but here we are like a family, you know?” said the woman of Ethiopia.
While she was sitting with CNN, mattresses on the ground border the edges of the room, she said: “We are together. Everyone is in distress. Everyone is in a bad situation. ”
A few days after being initially brought to a Panamanian hotel, the migrants were again loaded on buses. They expected to be transferred to another hotel, says Ambo.
But the journey has extended for hours, until they arrive in an installation more than a hundred kilometers outside the city of Panama on the outskirts of the Darién jungle near the border with Colombia.
“Are you going to kill us?” Why are you bringing us here? ” She remembers asking for fear: “Bringing us into this place, a forest. What will happen to us?”
Artemis Ghasemzadeh, an English teacher from Iran, remembers having cried after being expelled from the United States on his birthday in February.
“I changed my religion in Iran and the punishment of this is perhaps a long prison or at the end of death,” she told CNN. “They took two of my friends from the underground church, so I understand that it is time to leave. The next one is me,” she added.
In February, she was seen in a window of the hotel migrating with the words “Help us” written through the window.
A few days later, she was in this Panamanian jungle camp, known as San Vicente, with more than 100 other migrants who were in the same situation as her family.
“The food was really disgusting,” said Ghasemzadeh. “The bathroom was really dirty, no privacy, no door,” she added.
Salam said that the water to bathe was not clean, which made the emergency burst over his skin. She pulled a leg of pants to show the marks on her skin. “My whole body is like that,” she said.
The president of Panama, José Raúl Mulino, has repeatedly denied that the authorities have violated the rights of the deportees. As much commented on the conditions of the camp, a spokesperson for the office of the Panamanian Minister of Security delayed at the International Migration Office (OIM), who helps migrants.
A spokesperson for the IOM, however, stressed that the management of deportees is an “operation led by the government”, saying to CNN “We had no direct involvement in the detention or restriction of the movements of individuals”.
At each stage of the path, the lawyers of these migrants argue that their rights have been raped.
“Our assertion is that America has violated the right to seek asylum and by extension, by receiving them, the Panamanian government has done the same thing,” said Silvia Serna Román, regional liter from Mexico and Central America for the World Council for Strategic Litigation. “Even if they all claim to be asylum seekers, they never had the right to be heard,” she added.
Serna Román is part of a group of international lawyers who filed a complaint against Panama for these alleged violations to the Inter -American Commission on Human Rights. Ian Kysel, who is also part of this group, previously said that they explored a range of new legal actions, including against specific entities in the United States and other countries that could take US migrants expelled or expelled.
Panama denied any reprehensible act in this saga.
In early March, the Panamanian government released the most than 100 migrants from the distant jungle camp, but gave them “humanitarian” permits of 30 days, extensible up to 90 days, to find another place to go or risk the deportation of Panama.
“We are also trying to navigate the terms of these permits,” said Serna Román. “If they are only given 90 days and the 90 days arise, they could be deleted by force and they could be involuntarily brought back to their country and it is our concern,” she added.
All the migrants that CNN and CNN in Español have spoken said that going back to their country was simply not an option.
“Asylum means that I am not safe in my country, I need help.
“If I come back to my country, my government will kill me, so in Panama, they are free to kill me,” she added.
Aurelio Martinez, spokesperson for the Panama Ministry of Security, told CNN that after the 90-day period, it would be studied whether to grant another extension or if their status would become illegal.
When CNN has consulted if this could trigger forced repatriation, Martinez simply declared that they would examine each case individually, that Panama still supports migrants and human rights, and that they intend to maintain this support and this commitment.
Ambo, her life now in a demoralizing dead point, still dreams of the United States, even if she has no idea of the end of this nightmare.
“America has always been a country that has received people around the world. I think that is why many people go to the United States to seek asylum, “she said.
“They should listen to us and see if they can allow us to stay or not because when you do not listen to someone, it means that human rights do not exist in America again.”
