Please help us: Indians among 300 US deportees detained at Panama hotel
Nearly 300 illegal immigrants, including Indians, deported from the US as part of President Donald Trump’s massive crackdown against undocumented aliens, are currently being detained at a hotel in Panama as officials are scrambling to send them back to their home countries.
Images shared by major news networks showed desperate deportees holding up signs that said, “please help us” and “we are not safe” on the windows of Decapolis Hotel in Panama City, while police officers stood guard at the premises.
According to an Associated Press report, a majority of the nearly 300 deportees belonged to India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Afghanistan, China, Vietnam and Iran. Panama is being used as a stop-over as the US faces difficulties in the deportation process to some of these nations.
Panama’s Security Minister Frank Abrego, however, said that the immigrants were not being “deprived of their freedom”, adding that “they are in our custody for their protection”.
Speaking to reporters, Abrego also confirmed that the deportees were receiving medical aid and food as part of a migration agreement between Panama and the US.
Following US Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s visit to Panama earlier this month, the Central American nation agreed to serve as a “bridge” or transit country for deportees, while Washington bears all the costs of the operation.
Abrego also said those who do not want to be deported to their home countries would be transferred to a shelter in the Darien jungle, near Panama’s border with Colombia, while the International Organization for Migration and the UN Refugee Agency organise their relocation to another nation.
According to the Minister, at least 171 illegal immigrants have voluntarily agreed to return to their home countries and as of Wednesday evening, 97 deportees, who wished to go to a different nation, were transferred to a camp in Darien, which has become the main thoroughfare for migrants travelling from South America to the US border in recent years.
Abrego added that eight more would be transferred soon.
Earlier on Wednesday, Panama’s National Immigration Service confirmed a Chinese woman migrant had escaped the hotel, but was found near a migrant processing facility along the northern Panama-Costa Rica border, a high-transit point for migrants headed toward the US.
The latest development comes as three deportation flights from the US have brought back at least 332 illegal Indian immigrants back home since February 5.
All three flights, C-17 US military aircraft, have landed in Amritsar.
The first flight on February 5 carried 104 deportees, the second on February 15 had 116 individuals and the third on February 16 brought back 112 illegal immigrants.
There was massive outcry after deportees, both in the first and second flights, claimed that they were shackled and handcuffed throughout their journey from the US to India.
