CNN
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Panama on Tuesday launched its first U.S.-funded migrant deportation flight, part of an effort to reduce the number of migrants traveling north through the region.
According to Panama’s Deputy Security Minister Luis Felipe Icaza, 29 Colombians were deported from Panama City to Medellín, Colombia.
The deportees boarded the plane early in the morning, handcuffed and shackled, and accompanied by Panamanian immigration officials. One of the people on board the flight was a member of the criminal organization Clan del Golfo, Icaza claimed.
The deportation flight came after the United States and Panama signed a memorandum of cooperation on July 1 to reduce the number of migrants crossing Panama without permission on their way to the United States.
During a press conference on the repatriation flights on Tuesday, US Department of Homeland Security official Marlen Piñeiro urged migrants to stop walking through the jungle to reach the US. She said: “Our message is clear: Darién is not a route.”
Last month, Panama placed barbed wire across several routes in the Darién jungle, a dangerous crossing between Panama and Colombia, to block the route north.
So far this year, more than 230,000 people from Colombia have entered Panama through the Darién jungle. And so far in August, more than 8,000 have passed through. These figures would represent a 30% decrease compared to the same period from January to August 2023, according to Roger Mojica, director of the Panamanian Migration Authority.
Currently, Panama only operates deportation flights to Colombia, Mojica said.
He added that Panama was trying to coordinate flights to other countries such as Ecuador and India, but not to Venezuela, where economic devastation and an authoritarian government have displaced more people than anywhere else in the region.
