The deportation flight was carried out after the US and Panama signed a memorandum of cooperation to reduce the number of migrants crossing Panama without permission, on their way to the US.
Panama on Tuesday carried out its first migrant deportation flight funded by the United States, part of a widening effort to reduce the number of migrants traveling north through the region. Twenty-nine Colombians were deported from Panama City to Medellín, Colombia, according to Panama’s Deputy Security Minister Luis Felipe Icaza. The deportees boarded the plane early in the morning with cuffs around their hands and ankles, escorted by authorities from Panama’s migration agency.
During a press conference on the repatriation flights Tuesday, US Department of Homeland Security official Marlen Piñeiro urged migrants to stop trekking through the jungle to reach the US, saying, “For us, the message we’re sending is clear: Darién is not a route.” Last month, Panama placed barbed wire across several routes in the Darién jungle, a treacherous passage between Panama and Colombia, in a bid to block the northward route.
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