The ordeal of those returning has been further highlighted a tragedy last Friday, when a boat carrying 21 migrants capsized in rough waters
Panama is serving as a stopover for unauthorized migrants being removed from the U.S. by the Trump administration. To discuss the country's role in receiving hundreds of migrants, Amna Nawaz spoke with Carlos Ruiz-Hernández,
Panama's attorney-general said on Wednesday (Feb 26) that concession granted to a Hong Kong-based firm to operate ports on either end of the Panama Canal should be scrapped for being "unconstitutional".
A deportee from the United States detained in a camp in rural Panama, among a hundred who refused to return to their countries, has described waiting in limbo under “harsh conditions” and cut off from access to legal council and other rights.
Panamanian authorities say they recaptured a woman who had escaped confinement from a Panama hotel where she and nearly 300 deportees from the United States were being held as they awaited repatriatio
The group of unauthorized migrants, which includes children, were bused to the camp late Tuesday night. “It looks like a zoo, there are fenced cages,” said one of the detainees.
Days after the United States sent 300 migrants from Asia and the Middle East to Panama, a Panamanian official said that more than half had agreed to be deported to their countries of origin.
Since returning to office, President Trump has made repeated claims that China operates the Panama Canal and threatened to take it back from the Panama Canal Authority, which has controlled it since 1999.
Prior to the origination of the plans for the Panama Canal vessels of trade had few options of getting goods from Europe and Asia to N. America.
The Trump administration threatening partners in the Americas may prove to be short-term tactical approach but it will not prove to be a viable long-term strategy for engaging economically with the region.