Many immigrants said that nearly 100 immigrants, who were recently deported by the United States to Panama, where they were imprisoned in a hotel, were loaded on buses on Tuesday night and moved to a detention camp in the outskirts of the forest.
It is not clear how much time the group was deported, which was deported under the Trump administration’s sweeping effort to expel unauthorized immigrants, will be held in Al -Ghab camp.
The detainees said that the conditions on the site are primitive. Diseases, including dengue fever, is a settlement for the region, and the government has been deprived of access to journalists and relief organizations.
“It looks like a zoo, there are fenced cages,” said one of the two Christians. “They gave us an old piece of bread. We are sitting on the floor.”
The group includes eight children, according to a person who is known for the situation that was not allowed to speak in the record. Lawyers said that it is illegal to detain people in Panama for more than 24 hours without the court.
The Panamanian government has not issued an official announcement of the transfer to the Al -Ghab camp.
in Broadcast interview On Wednesday with the news program, Panamá En Directo, the country’s minister of security, Frank Urgo, did not discuss this step. But he said that the immigrants were held by Panama “to protect their own” and because the officials “need to verify them.”
Transport is the latest step in an epic for a week for a group of about 300 immigrants who arrived in the United States in the hope of searching for asylum. The group was sent to Panama, which agreed to assist President Trump in his plan to deport millions of illegal immigrants.
The agreement is part of a greater strategy by the Trump administration to export some of the most difficult immigration challenges to other countries. For varying reasons, the United States cannot easily deport people to countries such as Afghanistan, Iran and China, but through extreme pressure, it was able to persuade Panama to take some of them.
Last week, Panama’s Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Ruiz Herindez said that Panama is in line with a direct request from the Trump administration to accept migrants. “It is clear that this is in favor of being done,” Mr. Ruiz Herindez said during a press conference last Thursday. “It is a request, a request that was submitted with a little urgency.”
Analysts say that Panama is under severe pressure from Mr. Trump, who threatened to seize the Panama Channel about what is believed to be Chinese influence in the waterway, which is the claim that the President of Panama has repeatedly refuted him.
After sending it to Panama, the funny immigrants are no longer subject to the law of the United States.
Costa Rica also takes some of the deportees, including migrants originally from Central Asia and India, and said it plans to return them home. A trip from the United States is expected to arrive in Costa Rica on Thursday.
Upon his arrival in Panama last week, 300 immigrants or so were transferred to a hotel in the city center, called Decapolis, and from the departure, many of whom told the New York Times in calls and text messages.
Jenny Soto Fernadiz, a lawyer who seeks to represent many of them, said at least four times from her visit to the hotel. At the hotel, the United Nations International Migration Organization was talking to immigrants about their options, according to the government, and offering flights to their countries of origin for those who wanted them.
Some, including a group of Iranian Christians and a man from China, told the New York Times that they are risking revenge if they returned to their countries of origin, and they refused to sign documents that pave the way for them to restore them.
Under Iranian law, transformation from Islam is considered a response and is considered a crime that is punished by death.
On Tuesday morning, an article published by the Times attracted tremendous attention to the situation of immigrants, and the Panamanian news media members surrounding the hotel began.
That night, the hotel guards asked the hotel to pack their bags, said Ms. Gasimzadeh, a Christian convert from Iran. Several buses arrived and led by the guards on board, as witnessed by a correspondent working in the New York Times.
Ms. Gasimzadeh said that the immigrants were initially informed that they will be transferred to another hotel, and some fear that they will really be deported to Iran.
Instead, the buses passed through the airport and then moved to a highway, and they traveled outside the city of Panama, east, then east, to Daryin County.
Two immigrants used their mobile phones to exchange their location in an actual time with times, allowing reporters to track their movements.
The camp in which 100 immigrants or so will remain San Vicente, and sit at the end of the forest, also called Darién, which connects Panama with Colombia. The camp was built years ago as a stop point for migrants coming in the north of Colombia through the Daryen Forest and to Panama, a terrible part of the trip to the north to the United States.
Now, the Panamanian government is used for it for the phases.
An Iranian woman, a 8 -year -old mother, cried during the bus trip. She said that her child was sick of sore throat for several days, and the uncertainty and constant displacement were affecting her.
Upon her arrival, Ms. Gasimzadeh said she could see large containers that seem to be new immigrant homes. She said that the officials ordered the filling of the models with their names, and asked for fingerprints.
On Tuesday, Mr. Al -Sayed told the correspondents at a press conference that 170 out of 300 immigrants or so have volunteered to be sent to their countries of origin, trips that will be arranged by the International Organization for Migration. The decision to retain migrants as part of an agreement with the United States.
“What we agreed with the United States government is that it remains and they are in our temporary reservation to protect them,” he said.
In response to immigrant accounts that many mobile phones and documents, including passports, have been confiscated, Mr. Abric said that these elements were taken during the detention of migrants in the United States.
On Wednesday, 12 people from Uzbekistan and India have restored with the help of the International Organization for Migration.
Officials also said on Wednesday that one of the detained immigrants, a woman from China, fled the hotel, where dozens of immigrants remain.
in A message published to XShe requested the immigration service in the country to find it, saying that the authorities are afraid to fall into the hands of human traveles.
The authorities wrote about “a security entity for the state”, “Our commitment is to combat illegal immigration”, while compliance with “national and international principles and regulations related to human rights.”
The Panamanian government has already said that immigrants have no criminal records.
Many immigrants who stayed at the hotel – including some India and Eastern Europe – signed documents allowing them to be deported and expected to be sent to their countries of origin in the coming days.
On Wednesday morning, from the Daryin area, Mrs. Gasimzadeh described an equal camp, and the cats and dogs exceeded.
After that, she sent a text message saying that she is afraid that the authorities will soon take her phone. “Please try to help us,” she said.
Alex E contributed. Hernandez in the preparation of reports from Panama.