Panama will allow more than a hundred undocumented immigrants deported by the United States to stay in the country for at least another 30 days, Security Minister Frank \u00c1brego said on Friday. <\/p>\n
The group, mainly from countries in Asia and the Middle East, will receive temporary humanitarian permits for one month that could be extended up to 90 days, \u00c1brego told reporters, adding that the individuals had declined repatriation help from the United Nations and the International Organization for Migration. <\/p>\n
They were among an original group of nearly 300 migrants sent to Panama from the US as part of the Trump administration\u2019s mass deportation campaign, which it has pressured Latin American nations to help with. <\/p>\n
Many of the group have been held in a makeshift camp near the remote Darien jungle. <\/p>\n
A group of lawyers representing the deportees \u2013 who previously filed suit against Panama in the Inter-American Commision on Human Rights \u2013 welcomed Friday\u2019s decision in a statement, but emphasized that asylum seekers should not be repatriated at the end of the 90 day-period. <\/p>\n
\u201cToday, in the context of our pending lawsuit, the Panamanian government has changed course \u2013 they have made a commitment not to deport our clients and to release them from incommunicado and arbitrary detention,\u201d said Silvia Serna Roman, an attorney and co-counsel in the case, in the statement. <\/p>\n
\u201cOur primary concern is that the government offers no solution to our clients who cannot return to their countries due to a fear of persecution.\u201d <\/p>\n
The migrants were originally confined to a hotel in Panama City, before some were moved to the remote camp, which Herischi described as tough and dirty, with limited access to medication and the internet. <\/p>\n
Panamanian President Jos\u00e9 Ra\u00fal Mulino has repeatedly denied that authorities have violated the deportees\u2019 rights in accepting their deportation or confining them while in Panama. <\/p>\n
\u201cThese organizations are respectful of human rights. It\u2019s false and I deny that we are mistreating them,\u201d Mulino has said. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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