IUU ATPORTED MIGRANTS IN A HOTEL IN PANAMA ask for help through the windows

«Please, help us,» says the message written in a piece of paper that two girls show through the window of a room of the luxurious Decapolis hotel, in Panama City.

BBC

A hotel that offers its customers rooms with sea views, two exclusive restaurants, pool, spa, private transport, but suddenly became a “temporary custody” center that houses 299 deported migrants from the US, As the Panama government reported Tuesday.

Some migrants raise their arms and cross them at the height of the dolls as if trying to say that they are deprived of liberty. Others hang small posters with messages such as «we are not sure in our country.»

On a normal day, tourists could enter and leave the hotel without any inconvenience, but under the current circumstances, with members of the National Aeronaval Service of Panama heavily armed, guarding the exterior and strict security measures inside, the building seems more like a improvised bunker than a holiday center.

From the street, hangers are seen with washing clothes hanging in the window. One of the garments is a yellow basketball shirt with the number 24 of the Lakers, which dressed the legendary Kobe Bryant player.

In another, a group of adults and three children raise an arm with their thumb in the palm, making an international aid gesture used by those who feel threatened. In the glass it is written with red letters the phrase Help Us («Help us»).

And a little further, two minors with the covered face hold against the glass some leaves with the message: «Please save the Afghan girls.»

These migrants, sent by Donald Trump’s government as part of their deportation policy of undocumented people, arrived in Panama on three flights last week, after the government of President José Raúl Mulino agreed to become a «bridge» country for those deported in transit to other countries.

However, of the 299 migrants -among whom there are citizens from India, China, Uzbekistan, Iran, Vietnam, Turkey, Nepal, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka who traveled in the first of the three flights-, only 171 they accepted to come back to its nations.

The other 128 migrants who do not want to be sent back to their country of origin face, at least so far, an uncertain destination.

According to the newspaper La Prensa citing official sources, this group will be transferred to a camp in the province of Darién, which has so far served to temporarily receive irregular migrants who crossed the jungle to the US.

«We are terrified»

An Iranian woman who lives in Panama years ago told BBC Mundo that she was in contact with one of the migrants inside the Decapolis hotel and described that they are «terrified» by the possibility of taking them to Iran.

Through a hidden cell phone, since they do not allow them to have any contact with the exterior of the hotel, the migrant told the woman that there are «several minors trapped» there, that they have denied them to have a lawyer and that they do not let them out of the room not even to eat.

The woman went to the hotel to offer her help as a translator from Farsi to Spanish, but they told her that they already had one, something that according to their conversation with the migrant inside the hotel was not true.

BBC Mundo contacted the Decapolis hotel to inquire about the conditions in which migrants are, but did not agree to answer questions.

After the history of the deportees was released on Tuesday in the press, the security measures were extreme under which the migrants remain and cut the access to the Internet, said the Iranian woman.

A video that circulates on social networks from the weekend shows one of the migrants telling Farsi that they were arrested after crossing the border to the United States and informed them that they would be transferred to Texas, but ended up in Panama.

The woman in the video insisted that her lives are in danger in case of returning to Iran for the possible reprisals that the government of that country could take.

His intention, he says, is to ask for political asylum.

A political asylum difficult to obtain without access to a lawyer. Even more difficult when the Panamanian government announced that it has not offered or offered that protection to deportees.

«Temporary custody»

Panama Public Security Minister Frank Abrego reported Tuesday that migrants are transiently in that country. The official rejected that foreigners are in detention condition and added that they are under the protection of the Panamanian authorities.

«What we agreed with the US government is that they remain and are in our temporal custody for their protection.»

Asked about the impossibility of leaving the hotel, Ábrego replied that it is a prevention measure and added that his government must guarantee the security and peace of the Panamanians.

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