Booming influx of migrants, deportees makes Costa Rica, Panama a ‘black hole’

Miramar: Officials in Costa Rica and Panama are confiscating migrants’ passports and cellphones, denying them access to legal services and moving them between remote outposts as they wrestle with the logistics of a suddenly reversed migration flow.

The restrictions and lack of transparency are drawing criticism from human rights observers and generating increasingly testy responses from officials, who say their actions are aimed at protecting the migrants from human traffickers.

Both countries have received hundreds of deportees from various nations sent by the United States as President Donald Trump’s administration tries to accelerate deportations. At the same time, thousands of migrants shut out of the US have started moving south through Central America – Panama recorded 2,200 so far in February. “We’re a reflection of current United States immigration policy,” said Harold Villegas-Román, a political science professor and refugee expert at the University of Costa Rica. “There is no focus on human rights, there is only focus on control and security. Everything is very murky, and not transparent.”

Earlier this month, the US sent 299 deportees from mostly Asian countries to Panama. Those who were willing to return to their countries – about 150 to date -- were put on planes with the assistance of United Nations agencies and paid for by the US.

Carlos Ruiz-Hernandez, Panama’s deputy foreign minister, said Thursday a small number are in contact with international organisations and the UN Refugee Agency as they weigh whether to seek asylum in Panama.

“None of them wants to stay in Panama. They want to go to the US,” he said in a phone interview from Washington. “We cannot give them green cards, but we can get them back home and for a short period of time provide them with medical and psychological support as well as housing.”

Despite Trump’s threats to retake control of the Panama Canal, he said Panama had not acted under US pressure. “This is in Panama’s national interest. We are a friend of the US and want to work with them to send a signal of deterrence.”

Ruiz-Hernandez said some of the deportees remaining in Panama would be given the option of staying at a shelter originally set up to handle the large number of migrants moving north through the Darien Gap. One Chinese deportee currently detained in the camp, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid repercussions, said she wasn’t given a choice. Costa Rica and Panama have so far denied press access to facilities where they are holding migrants. Panama had initially invited journalists to the Darien this week, but ultimately canceled the visit.

“Panama cannot end up becoming a black hole for deported migrants,” said Juan Pappier, deputy director of Human Rights Watch

in the Americas.