First US-funded migrant return flight leaves Panama

The first return flight for irregular migrants who crossed the dangerous Darien jungle, financed by the United States within the framework of an agreement with Panama, left the capital of the Central American country on Tuesday bound for the city of Medellin, in Colombia.

Around 30 Colombian citizens, mostly young people and with criminal records, according to official sources who spoke to EFE, arrived in handcuffs at the Marcos A. Gelabert Airport in the capital, better known as the Albrook terminal, where after a documentary search they boarded the aircraft, which departed shortly after 6:00 in the morning.

The head of the National Migration Service (SNM), Roger Mojica, said at a press conference that the migrants on this first flight financed by the United States were returned to Colombia under the guise of deportation.

Among the Colombian citizens deported on Tuesday is a suspected “hitman” of the Colombian Clan del Golfo, who was identified through the biometric system used by Panamanian authorities in Darien, the official added.

There is no return of Venezuelans for now

Mojica said that the government of Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino is “coordinating and making diplomatic agreements” with countries such as “Ecuador, India and other nations” to return citizens of those countries who enter Panama illegally through Darién, both those with criminal records and those without.

So far this year, more than 230,000 irregular migrants from several dozen countries around the world, although the vast majority originate from Venezuela, have entered Panama after crossing the jungle, according to data cited by the head of the Immigration Office.

Since Panama’s diplomatic relations with Venezuela are suspended due to the post-election crisis in that country, there are no plans to return the nationals of the South American country identified in the migratory flow, Mojica said.

Venezuelans, “after initial attention” at the Darien immigration stations, where travelers receive food and medical attention, “are allowed to continue with the controlled flow” on their journey to North America, Mojica said.

But the regional US homeland security attaché, Marlen Piñeiro, said at the same press conference that “the majority of people” who arrive in the United States after crossing the Darien “will not qualify to enter” the North American country.

On July 1, Panama and the United States signed an agreement to return migrants who cross the Darien, the jungle bordering Colombia, which is experiencing a crisis due to the migratory flow that last year reached an unprecedented figure of 520,000 people.

In this context, those who have criminal records and those who enter the country illegally, which are all those who enter through Darien, will be returned under the figure of repatriation or deportation,” said Mojica.

The agreement involves US support valued at $6 million, which is why the Panamanian president said last week that the return flights of migrants are “at no cost to Panama.”

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