By james art 
Panama City – Panama detained nearly 300 people from different countries deported under US President Donald Trump without allowing them to leave while waiting for international authorities to organize a return to their countries.
More than 40% of migrants say that the authorities will not voluntarily return to their homeland. The migrants in the hotel rooms kept messages to the windows that read “help” and “we are not saving (sic) in our country.”
The migrants welcomed 10 mostly Asian countries, including Iran, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Afghanistan, China and others. The United States has difficulty departing some of those countries directly, so Panama is used as a stop. Costa Rica was expected to receive a similar flight to third -country deported on Wednesday.
Panama Frank Abrego Security Minister said migrants received medical assistance and food as part of a migration agreement between Panama and the United States
The Panama Government has now agreed to serve as a “bridge” or a transit country for deported while the United States bears all the cost of the operation. The agreement was announced earlier this month after the visit of US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Panam President Jose Raul Mulino, who is facing political pressure on Trump’s threats from restoring control over the Panama Canal, has announced the arrival of the first of the deportation flights last Thursday.
The detention and the legal limb with which they deported were alarmed in the Central American country, especially when images spread to migrants reached the top through the windows of their rooms on high floors of the hotel and show notes asking for help.
Abreo denied the foreigners detained, although they could not leave the rooms of their hotel, which was guarded by the police.
Abrego said 171 of the 299 deportes agreed to return voluntarily to their respective countries with the help of the International Migration Organization and the UN Refugee Agency. UN agencies talk to the other 128 migrants in an attempt to find a destination for them in third countries. Abrego said a deported Irish citizen has already returned to his country.
Those who do not agree to return to their countries will be temporarily conducted to a facility in the remote province of Darien, through which hundreds of thousands of migrants have passed through their journey north in recent years, Abrego said.
The service of the Panama Ombudsman was intended to provide more details about the situation of the deported later Tuesday.
Copyright 2025 NPR