The US has deported hundreds of people to countries like Panama, Costa Rica, and El Salvador as part of the Trump administration’s plan to deport “millions.” On arrival in Panama, deportees have been detained in several ad hoc facilities, including one in the treacherous Darién region, where reports highlight a serious disregard for fundamental human rights.
Deportation “Bridge”
Since February, the US has deported hundreds of people to Panama as part of a deal aimed at having Panama serve as a “bridge” for deportees as they await return to their countries of origin or third countries. Panamanian President Raul Mulino says that he agreed to accept an initial 360 migrants. According to the New York Times, Panama is a “key cog in the deportation machinery President Trump is trying to kick into high gear.”
Upon arrival in February, migrants and asylum seekers were placed in Panama City’s Decapolis Hotel. While authorities denied that they were detained in the multi-story, glass-fronted hotel, reports indicate otherwise. Migrants were not permitted to leave the hotel, the building was guarded by police officers, and lawyers reported difficulties in speaking with the deportees. In photographs taken by journalists outside the hotel, deportees can be seen attempting to voice their concerns by holding signs with messages such as “please help us.”
During a recent visit to Panama, the UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants noted his concerns regarding the placement of migrants and asylum seekers in the hotel. He wrote: “I am extremely concerned about the uncertainty regarding the following issues: due process and procedural safeguards of such arrangements, the legal and migration status of these individuals, the legal basis for their detention, their access to information about their rights, safeguards in place to ensure their right to challenge the lawfulness of their detention, their access to asylum procedures, and safeguards to uphold the principle of non-refoulement, including individualized assessment on the protection needs, etc.”
Relocated to the Darien Region
On 19 February, authorities transferred 112 deportees from the hotel to a facility in the notoriously treacherous Darién region–amongst them, at least eight children. Those sent to the San Vicente Migrant Reception Centre near Meteti were reportedly deportees who had refused to be returned to their country of origin, citing fears for their safety.
While journalists and lawyers have been denied access to the facility and phones confiscated from deportees, it has been possible to develop a picture of the conditions migrants face in the camp. Several migrants who concealed their phones managed to speak with international journalists describing poor conditions and treatment including excessive monitoring; sweltering temperatures and lack of air conditioning; lack of privacy in bathrooms; poor quality and insufficient food; and no information about where they would be sent next.
According to a New York Times journalist who reported from outside the camp, the facility is “Surrounded by fences and armed guards, they sleep on cots or hard benches. Journalists have been barred, lawyers say they have been blocked from speaking to their clients.” As one ACLU lawyer described it, migrants disappeared into a “black box” without any access to counsel.
Medical care also appears to be insufficient, with the newspaper reporting that several of those who left the facility were “visibly ill. One needed HIV treatment, a lawyer said, another had run out of insulin and a third was suffering from seizures.”
Responsibility for the group has remained unclear. On the one hand, Panama’s Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs said that the US, through UNHCR, was paying to cover the needs of the migrants. At the same time, UNHCR stated that it could not enter the camp, and a spokesman for the US Department of Homeland Security said all questions about the group should be directed to Panama. “These individuals are in the custody of the Panamanian government, not the United States.”
Nowhere to go
Following widespread criticism of the migrants’ detention in the camp, including a habeas corpus petition from a Panamanian lawyer to the country’s Supreme Court, in early March authorities agreed to release the group of migrants. The group were given humanitarian passes providing them with 30 days to move freely while arranging their own departure from the country.
But with no clear pathway provided to them by Panamanian authorities, many of the migrants have reported a deep sense of fear and uncertainty for their future. Speaking to ABC News, Alvero Botero, a lawyer supporting the migrants, said: “It’s crucial that these people are not forgotten. 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.”
Previous US Support for Detention and Deportation in Panama
This is not the first time that the US has paid Panama to deport migrants and asylum seekers. As the Global Detention Project previously reported, Panama’s President Mulina announced in July 2024 the country’s plans to shut down the Darién Gap route and repatriate all migrants who cross into Panama. Reportedly, Mulino’s foreign minister signed an agreement with the previous US administration, which established that the US would cover the costs of repatriating migrants who entered Panama irregularly. The deal was intended to reduce the numbers of migrants “being smuggled through the Darién, usually en route to the United States,” said a spokesperson for the White House National Security Council at that time.
The Darién Gap
In 2023, the number of people who reportedly undertook the perilous journey through the Darien Gap reached a record of more than half a million people, of whom 113,00 were children. Observers say that migrants who make the jungle trek are vulnerable to frequent episodes of violence, sexual abuse, human trafficking, and disease. Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) reports that robbery, kidnapping and rape are very common and that in 2023 they treated 397 survivors of sexual violence, many of whom were children.
Observers have long characterised plans to “close” the Darién Gap as an impossible task, noting that Panama would have to massively ramp up its detention capacity. “In the entire country, they have capacity for about 30 people. … You’d have to first build detention facilities and ramp up access to asylum processing, which is pretty much non-existent in Panama, to comply with international legal obligations,” one expert told Reuters.
