A February 18 article from The New York Times reported that at least 10 Christians from Iran were among more than 100 individuals placed on a military plane last week destined for Panama.
This group also included migrants from Pakistan, Afghanistan, China, and Uzbekistan, which ranked eighth, tenth, fifteenth, and twenty-fifth, respectively, on Open Doors’ World Watch List of the 50 countries where it is most dangerous to be a Christian. Iran, where leaving Islam can result in a death penalty under sharia law, is ranked ninth.
According to the Times, migrants are currently being held in the Decapolis Hotel in Panama City, along with about 340 others who were flown from the United States on three military planes. A 27-year-old Christian woman from Iran reportedly wrote “Help us” in lipstick on a window.
Authorities confiscated their passports and deprived many of them of their mobile phones before locking them inside the hotel, which is guarded by armed personnel and where they are prohibited from seeking legal assistance. The Iranian woman told The Times that one deportee attempted suicide while another broke his leg trying to escape.
The woman explained that although she was aware of then-President Trump's plans to deport migrants when she left Iran in December, she believed that as an educated individual with no criminal record and documented conversion to Christianity, she would be allowed to stay. Seeking a better life, she first traveled to Mexico and paid a smuggler $3,000 to help her climb over the U.S. border wall, but she was quickly apprehended.
Expressing fear of retaliatory measures if returned to their home countries, she stated, “Only a miracle can save us.”
Panama’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ruiz-Hernández, indicated that the deportees were being temporarily housed at the hotel in response to a request from the Trump administration for Panama to accept them quickly.
Since U.S. officials began deporting hundreds of migrants from Asian, Middle Eastern, and African countries to Panama on February 12, the country now faces the challenge of determining its fate. According to The Times, “Because the deported migrants are no longer on U.S. soil, Washington is not legally obligated to make sure they are treated humanely or have the chance to seek asylum.”
Attorneys in Panama noted that individuals cannot be legally detained in the country for more than 24 hours without a court order. The deportees are expected to be moved to a makeshift camp called San Vicente in the Darién Gap jungle, as cited by Panama President José Raúl Mulino.
The U.N.’s International Organization of Migration has been assigned with overseeing the deportees while in Panama. However, a spokesman for the agency stated they were not involved in their “detention or restriction of movement” and were “facilitating returns where safe to do so,” according to The Times.
A senior U.N. official mentioned that the United Nations is “providing Panama with humanitarian and technical support,” but the management of the deportees and the process being followed are not entirely clear.
“Panama’s president has said that the plan is to send people back to their home countries. But if the United States could not easily send deportees back to certain countries, it is unclear how Panama will do so.” The Times reported.
