Panama has received the first US flight carrying deportees from other nations as the Trump administration takes Panama up on its offer to act as a stopover for expelled migrants, the Central American nation’s president said Thursday.
“Yesterday a flight from the United States Air Force arrived with 119 people from diverse nationalities of the world,” President José Raúl Mulino said Thursday in his weekly press briefing.
He said there were migrants from China, Uzbekistan, Pakistan and Afghanistan, among others, aboard.
The president said it was the first of three planned flights that were expected to total about 360 people. “It’s not something massive,” he said.
The migrants were expected to be moved to a shelter in Panama’s Darien region before being returned to their countries, Mulino said.
Asked later Thursday why Panama was acting as a stopover for these deportations, Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Ruiz Hernández said that it was something the US government had requested.
He also said the US government was paying for the repatriations through UN immigration agencies
The migrants who arrived Wednesday, had been detained after crossing the US border and did not have criminal records, he said.
Last week, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with Mulino in Panama.
While US President Donald Trump’s demands to retake control of the Panama Canal dominated the visit, Mulino also discussed Panama’s efforts to slow migration through the Darien Gap and he offered Panama as a bridge to send US deportees back to their countries. --->READ MORE HERE
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| CARLOS LEMOS/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock |
Panama said Thursday it had received a first US military plane transporting 119 deportees of various nationalities, who will now be repatriated to their own countries.
President Jose Raul Mulino, who has offered his country as a stopover for migrants expelled from the United States by the Donald Trump administration, said the plane arrived Wednesday with "people of the most diverse nationalities," many from Asia.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio visited Panama two weeks ago, meeting Mulino in the midst of a dispute over ownership of the Panama Canal, which Trump had vowed the United States would be "taking back."
After the visit, Rubio voiced optimism Panama would address US concerns, including over alleged Chinese influence on the operation of the critical US-built waterway.
Mulino also promised to step up cooperation on the new administration's top priority -- repatriating undocumented migrants.
He offered Rubio the use of an airstrip in the town of Meteti in Darien, the dense jungle that has become a major crossing point for migrants seeking to exit South America en route to the United States.
Trump's predecessor Joe Biden had already sealed a deal after Mulino's election last year to provide $6 million to assist in expelling migrants.
Since then, Panama has closed several routes in the Darien and deported migrants on flights to countries including Colombia and Ecuador. --->READ MORE HERE
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