Locked in a camp in the jungle, migrants deported to Panama face an uncertain future

The camp is located four hours from the capital of Panama, and it is reached by a highway full of potholes and, often, lonely. It is an area located on the edge of the dangerous jungle of the Darién.

By The New York Times

For more than a week, he hosted more than 100 asylum applicants from around the world. Surrounded by assets and armed guards, they sleep in Catres or hard banks.

Entry to journalists has been prohibited, lawyers say they have been prevented from talking to their clients and it is the government who is in command, not international aid groups that, according to Panamanian authorities, are the ones who organize the operation.

Migrants are part of the various hundreds of people who arrived in recent weeks to the southern border of the United States, hoping to request asylum in the country, and were quickly deported to Central America.

Since then, they have become cases of evidence in the effort of the Government of Donald Trump for sending other countries to some of the most difficult people to deport. Of the approximately 300 people sent to Panama, more than half have agreed to be repatriated, according to President Raúl Mulino.

Another 112 have said that for them it is too dangerous to return to their countries or that they lack documentation that allows them to do so. Now they are in the camp near the jungle without knowing how long they will be retained or where they will later send them.

Although its number is small, its cases stand out to the tension between the objectives of the United States government to expel a large number of migrants and the limits of Latin American countries that work to facilitate these ambitions, under the enormous pressure of President Trump.

Panama, like the United States, cannot easily deport people to places like Afghanistan and Iran, often because those countries refuse to readmit to their citizens.

Among the people trapped in the camp there are at least eight children, as well as women fleeing the Taliban in Afghanistan and Christians converts fleeing the government in Iran. None have been accused of crimes, according to Panamanian officials.

Inside the camp, a few people still have access to mobile phones and have been able to communicate with The New York Times.

«We told them: they are treating us as prisoners,» said Sahar Bidman, 33, Iranian and mother of two children. «When I want to take my children to the shower they escort us.»

While the Panamanian authorities strive to find out what to do with this group, they have faced growing criticisms of lawyers and human rights activists.

Gehad Madi, the United Nations Special Rapporteur who was allowed to visit the camp in recent days, made a scathing criticism. He described him as «detention center» and said he was «extremely concerned» about the legal base to retain migrants.

A request for Habeas Corpus presented by a Panamanian lawyer before the country’s Supreme Court states that the internment of the group is illegal.

Mulino told journalists on Thursday that the migrants of the camp, called San Vicente, were waiting for documentation, of which some lacked and would need to travel. He did not explain how the Government thought of deporting people, nor did he say if he would offer them asylum in Panama or facilitate them to pass to another country willing to host them.

To the question of why the detainees had not been allowed to talk to lawyers, he replied: «I don’t know.»

The United States, through the UN Agency for refugees, is paying food, accommodation and other needs of deported migrants, said Carlos Ruiz-Hernández, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Panama.

Panamanian authorities have denied that the conditions of San Vicente are prison.

A spokeswoman for the National Security Department, Tricia McLaughlin, said the questions about migrants should go to Panama.

«These people are in custody of the Panamanian government,» he said, «not from the United States.»

Mulino had said that the transfer of migrants to his country «organizes and pays» two United Nations agencies, «not the Government of the Republic of Panama.»

But one of those agencies, the United Nations High Commissioner for refugees, said in a statement that it was not really working within the camp and that it was limited to providing funds.

The other agency, the International Organization for Migration, has not been present regularly at the Darién camp, according to a person with close knowledge of the situation that was not authorized to talk about it publicly.

He has focused on organizing the repatriation of those who offered as volunteers for that process.

At least two organizations, the Red Cross and UNICEF, have begun to help in the camp in recent days, migrants said.

Ruiz-Hernández, in a written answer to the questions of the Times, said: «We want to assure the public that all migrants in San Vicente continue to receive comprehensive support.»

«Our government,» he continued, «remains dedicated to defending human dignity and to meet the needs of all people in our charge.»

Bidman is one of the 10 Iranian Christians in San Vicente who said they had abandoned their country in the hope of freely practicing their religion in the United States.

Instead, in mid -February the US government moved them by plane from California to Panama City, where they remained locked in a hotel for approximately a week. After refusing to be deported, they were transferred by bus to the San Vicente camp.

The converts of Islam to Christianity in Iran face a possible death penalty.

The group receives three meals a day, and when Bidman’s son, Sam, 11, was injured, took him to a clinic where a doctor examined him and provided him with analgesics.

After a visit from the Red Cross and UNICEF, the conditions inside improved a little, several of the Iranians said, and the field authorities cleaned the homes and showers and provided a drinking water dispenser.

«At first, when we got here, the children cried every day,» Bidman said. «I don’t stop telling you that this is temporary and that in the end we will go to a pleasant place.»

People held in San Vicente are part of a much greater migratory challenge for Central American nations.

From 2021, a huge number of people began to walk from South America to Panama, through the Darién jungle, in an attempt to reach the United States. With Trump promising mass deportations, the wave is beginning to go in reverse, with migrants who go south from Mexico.

Mulino has said that he is considering the possibility of moving by plane to Venezuelan migrants from Panama to Colombia, where they could cross again to Venezuela. (Lacking relations with Venezuela, you cannot simply send them to Caracas).

This has attracted Panama at least 2000 people, including many Venezuelans, in recent weeks, Mulino said, although no flight has materialized.

Instead, some migrants who return have begun to make dangerous trips in time boats from Panama to Colombia, on agitated waters. A vessel wreck this month in the midst of bad weather, which caused the drowning of an eight -year -old girl, according to the Border Police.

Many returnees wait in another government migrants camp, called Blancas Lajas, about 40 minutes from San Vicente. There, six migrants told Times that they were Panamanian officials who enrolled people for boat trips.

Mulino has recognized the existence of these maritime trips. When asked about the official involvement, Ruiz-Hernández said that the country had «applied an integral approach to guarantee the security and protection of repatriated migrants to their countries of origin.»

Zulimar Ramos, 31, one of the Venezuelan of Blancas slab, said he was considering the possibility of making one of the boat trips, despite the dangers.

«The American dream is over,» he said.

Panama is not the only country pressed by Trump’s government to accept deportees from around the world. In February, Costa Rica received 200 people from Central Asia, Middle East and Eastern Europe, including dozens of children.

As in Panama, migrants are held in remote facilities about six hours from the capital. Omer Badilla, head of the country’s migration authority, has said that people are retained to protect them from traffickers.

For the relatives of the deportees, the lack of clarity about the duration and conditions of their detention has been painful.

Farzana, 22, who lives in Canada, said her sister was among the people held in the Panamanian camp. The sister had entered the United States at the beginning of the year, hoping to cross the country and seek refuge in Canada, said Farzana.

Fearful that he suffered reprisals in the camp if a member of his family spoke, Farzana asked that only his first name be used.

A lawyer who works with women, Leigh Salsberg, said he had tried to contact someone from the camp without success.

«It seems as if these people were in a black hole,» he said, «and it seems that no one is really in contact with them at all.»

Farzana cried when telling her sister’s story.

«It’s very hard for me,» he said. “I am very worried about her. But I can’t do anything. ”