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Panama has deported 29 Colombians with suspected criminal records who entered the country through the Darién Gap, the dangerous land bridge between Colombia and Panama, marking the first time that an agreement signed with the United States in July to return migrants has been implemented.
“We have the first flight under the agreement financed by the United States,” Panamanian Deputy Security Minister Luis Felipe Icaza, accompanied by U.S. officials, told reporters on Tuesday after the charter flight took off for Bogotá at dawn.
Before boarding the Fokker 50 aircraft, the group was lined up at the edge of the runway and everyone was scanned with metal detectors.
The 29 deportees, who had no luggage, were handcuffed and slowly climbed the stairs of the plane.
Panama’s President Jose Raúl Mulino, who took office on July 1, had originally said the flights were “voluntary” returns. However, those deported on Tuesday had criminal records, officials said.
President Mulino, who has promised to reduce the number of migrants passing through Panama, described their situation as “sad.”
“Most of them are from Venezuela,” he explained. “They are people… they are families torn apart, children of five or six years old whose parents died on the crossing. We don’t even know who they are or what their names are.”
Icaza said the next flight under the agreement could depart on Friday or Saturday.
But at least for the moment, Panama is unable to deport Venezuelans because relations between the two countries have been strained since Panama refused to recognize the results of elections in Venezuela that would have given President Nicolás Maduro another term in office.
The two countries have suspended their diplomatic relations.
In a US election year, transit countries such as Panama and Mexico are coming under increasing pressure from Washington to address the highly controversial issue of migration.
Washington promised to provide six million dollars to repatriate migrants from the Central American country in the hope of reducing the number of illegal border crossings at its own southern border.
In an initial phase, migrants with criminal records will be deported, but the agreement could provide for the deportation of all those who enter Panama through the notoriously dangerous and rugged Darién Gap region on their way to the United States.
This was the first group to be deported under the agreement, although Panama had already sent several charter flights carrying Colombian citizens with criminal records to Colombia earlier this year.
The Darién Gap between Colombia and Panama has become an important corridor for migrants traveling overland from South America through Central America and Mexico to the United States.
Despite the dangers, which included attacks by criminal gangs, more than half a million undocumented migrants – mostly Venezuelans – crossed the Darién River last year.
Roger Mojico, director of Panama’s immigration service, told reporters on Tuesday that Panama is talking with other countries such as Ecuador and India about coordinating repatriation flights.
Sources: Al Jazeera, BBC.
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