Deportees from the US hop embassy to embassy in Panama in a desperate scramble to seek asylum

Boston Globe

21-03-2025

In February, the United States deported nearly 300 people from mostly Asian nations to Panama. The Central American ally was supposed to be a stopover for migrants from countries that were more challenging for the U.S. to deport to as the Trump administration tried to accelerate deportations. Some agreed to voluntarily return to their countries from Panama, but others refused out of fear of persecution and were sent to a remote camp in the Darien jungle for weeks.
Earlier this month, Panama released those remaining migrants from the camp, giving them one month to leave Panama. The government said they had declined assistance from international organizations, instead choosing to make their own arrangements. But with limited money, no familiarity with Panama and little to no Spanish, the migrants have struggled.
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Seeking asylum door-to-door
On Tuesday, about a dozen migrants began visiting foreign missions in Panama's capital, including the Canadian and British embassies, and the Swiss and Australian consulates with the hope of starting the process to seek refuge in those countries. They were either turned away or told that they would need to call or reach out to embassies by email. Messages were met with no response or a generic response saying embassies couldn't help.
In one email, Omagh detailed why he had to flee his country, writing 'please don't let me be sent back to Afghanistan, a place where there is no way for me to survive.'
'The Embassy of Canada in Panama does not offer visa or immigration services, not either services for refugee. Nor are we allowed to answer any questions in regards to visa or immigration,' the response read.
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At the British Embassy, a security guard handed asylum-seekers a pamphlet reading 'Emergency Help for British People.' The Swiss consulate told the group they would have to reach out to the embassy in Costa Rica, and handed the migrants a piece of paper with general phone lines and emails printed from the embassy's website.
Canadian, British and Australian diplomats in Panama did not respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press. The Swiss consulate denied that they turned away the asylum-seekers.
Panama limbo
The migrants had travelled halfway across the globe, reached the U.S. border where they sought asylum and instead found themselves in Panama, a country some had traversed months earlier on their way to the U.S.
Many of the deportees said they would be open to seeking asylum in Panama, but had been told both by international aid groups and Panamanian authorities that it would be difficult, if not impossible, to be granted refuge in the Central American nation.
Álvaro Botero, among those advocating for the migrants at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, said he wasn't surprised that they were turned away from embassies, as such help is often only offered in extreme cases of political persecution, and that other governments may fear tensions with the Trump administration.
'It's crucial that these people are not forgotten,' Botero said. 'They never asked to be sent to Panama, and now they're in Panama with no idea what to do, without knowing what their future will be and unable to return to their countries.'
The Trump administration has simultaneously closed legal pathways to the U.S. at its southern border, ramped up its deportation program, suspended its refugee resettlement program, as well as funding for organizations that could potentially aid the migrants now stuck in Panama.
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Over the weekend, the Trump administration sent more than 200 Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador to be held in a maximum-security gang prison, alleging that those expelled were part the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang without providing evidence.
Limited options remain
On Thursday, the migrants visited the Panama offices of the U.N. refugee agency. Omagh said they were told that the agency could not help them seek asylum in other countries due to restrictions by the Panamanian government. A U.N. official told them they could help start the asylum process in Panama, but warned that it was very unlikely that Panama's government would accept their claim, Omagh said.
The U.N.'s International Organization for Migration and the refugee agency did not immediately respond to requests for comment by the AP.
The same day, Filippo Grandi, head of the U.N. refugee agency, warned that aid cuts by the U.S. government would hurt refugee services around the world.
'We appeal to member States to honor their commitments to displaced people. Now is the time for solidarity, not retreat,' Grandi said in a statement.
Deportees including Omagh worried that foreign governments and aid organizations were washing their hands of them.
Omagh said that as an atheist and member of an ethnic minority group in Afghanistan known as the Hazara, returning home under the rule of the Taliban would mean death. He only went to the U.S. after trying for years to live in Pakistan, Iran and other countries but being denied visas.
Russian Aleksandr Surgin, also among the group seeking help at the embassies, said he left his country because he openly opposed the war in Ukraine on social media, and was told by government officials he could either be jailed or fight with Russian troops in Ukraine.
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When asked Thursday what he would do next, he responded simply: 'I don't hope for anything anymore.'