Following international criticism, Panama has released dozens of migrants deported by the US, who were held for weeks in a remote camp in the Central American nation. Panama authorities have given them 30 days to decide on their next course of action, leaving many uncertain about their future.
Panama announced on Friday that it will grant 30-day permits to 112 migrants deported from the US. The government has cited humanitarian reasons behind the move, but rights lawyers expressed concerns that this could be a tactic to absolve the authorities of international scrutiny for their treatment of migrants while also putting them in more danger.
According to Panama's Security Minister Frank Abrego, migrants - from a number of mostly Asian nations - have been granted temporary humanitarian passes as documents. Till the time their passes are valid, the freed migrants have to find their own places to stay while they decide where they want to go next.
The passes would last for an initial 30 days, but could be renewed, Abrego told Associated Press (AP).
"They have exactly 30 days to figure out how to leave Panama, because they refused ... to accept help from the International Organization for Migration and the UN Refugee Agency and said that they wanted to do it themselves," he said on Friday, a day before migrants were set free.
Trump's Immigration Crackdown
Since taking office on January 20, President Donald Trump's administration has launched a massive crackdown against illegal immigration in the US. The administration sent hundreds of people, many families with children, to Panama and Costa Rica as a stopover while authorities organise a way to send them back to their countries of origin.
The arrangement fuelled 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.
Lawyers and human rights defenders warned that Panama and Costa Rica were turning into "black holes" for deportees, and said their release was a way for Panamanian authorities to wash their hands of the deportees amid mounting human rights criticism.
Under international refugee law, people have the right to apply for asylum when they are fleeing conflict or persecution.
Those that refused to return home were later sent to a remote camp near Panama's border with Colombia, where they spent weeks in poor conditions, were stripped of their phones, unable to access legal counsel and were not told where they were going next.
'Uncertain Futures'
Many of the migrants released are now stranded in Panama with no resources or support. Among them is Hayatullah Omagh, a 29-year-old who fled Afghanistan in 2022 after the Taliban took control, into a legal limbo, scrambling to find a path forward.
Speaking to AP, he said, "We are refugees. We do not have money. We cannot pay for a hotel in Panama City, we do not have relatives."
"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," Omagh lamented.
As an atheist and member of an ethnic minority group in Afghanistan known as the Hazara, he said returning home under the rule of the Taliban - which swept back into power after the Biden administration pulled out of the country - would mean he would be killed. He only went to the US after trying for years to live in Pakistan, Iran and other countries but being denied visas.
Omagh was deported after presenting himself to American authorities and asking to seek asylum in the US, which he was denied.
"My hope was freedom. Just freedom," he said. "They didn't give me the chance. I asked many times to speak to an asylum officer and they told me no, no, no, no, no."
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.
Human rights groups and lawyers advocating for the migrants help many of them find shelter and other resources, while dozens of other people remained in the camp. Many of the migrants who were deported were fleeing violence and repression in their home countries and could not return home.
Among them was 27-year-old Nikita Gaponov, who fled Russia due to repression for being part of the LGBTQ+ community. According to him, he was detained at the US border, but not allowed to make an asylum claim. "Once I get off the bus (of freed deportees), I'll be sleeping on the ground tonight," Gaponov said.
Poor Detension Conditions
Omagh and Gaponov are among 65 migrants from China, Russia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Nepal and other nations who was set free after spending 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.
Despite no way home, Omagh said that leaving the camp was a relief. He and other migrants who spoke to the AP detailed scarce food, sweltering heat with little relief and aggressive Panamanian authorities.
Detailing the poor detention conditions, the report said a small riot broke out because guards refused to give a migrant their phone. It was later suppressed by armed guards.
Panamanian authorities, meanwhile, denied accusations about camp conditions, but blocked journalists from accessing the camp and cancelled a planned press visit last week.
While international aid organizations said they would organise travel to a third country for people who didn't want to return home, Panamanian authorities said the people released had already refused help.
Omagh said he was told in the camp he could be sent to a third country if it gives people from Afghanistan visas. He said that would be incredibly difficult because few nations open their doors to people with an Afghan passport.
He said he asked authorities in the camp multiple times if he could seek asylum in Panama, and said he was told that "we do not accept asylum".
'Back To US'
Many of those freed are turning their eyes north once again, saying that even though they had already been deported, they had no other option than to continue after crossing the world to reach the US.
"None of them wants to stay in Panama. They want to go to the US," said Carlos Ruiz-Hernandez, Panama's deputy foreign minister, in an interview with the AP last month.
That was the case for some, like one Chinese woman who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity, fearing repercussions from Panamanian authorities.
"I still want to continue to go to the United States and fulfil my American dream," she said.
