Panama will allow more than a hundred undocumented immigrants deported by the United States to stay in the country for at least another 30 days, Security Minister Frank Ábrego said on Friday.
The group, mainly from countries in Asia and the Middle East, will receive temporary humanitarian permits for one month that could be extended up to 90 days, Ábrego told reporters, adding that the individuals had declined repatriation help from the United Nations and the International Organization for Migration.
They were among an original group of nearly 300 migrants sent to Panama from the US as part of the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign, which it has pressured Latin American nations to help with.
Many of the group have been held in a makeshift camp near the remote Darien jungle.
A group of lawyers representing the deportees – who previously filed suit against Panama in the Inter-American Commision on Human Rights – welcomed Friday’s decision in a statement, but emphasized that asylum seekers should not be repatriated at the end of the 90 day-period.
“Today, in the context of our pending lawsuit, the Panamanian government has changed course – they have made a commitment not to deport our clients and to release them from incommunicado and arbitrary detention,” said Silvia Serna Roman, an attorney and co-counsel in the case, in the statement.
“Our primary concern is that the government offers no solution to our clients who cannot return to their countries due to a fear of persecution.”
The migrants were originally confined to a hotel in Panama City, before some were moved to the remote camp, which Herischi described as tough and dirty, with limited access to medication and the internet.
Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino has repeatedly denied that authorities have violated the deportees’ rights in accepting their deportation or confining them while in Panama.
“These organizations are respectful of human rights. It’s false and I deny that we are mistreating them,” Mulino has said.