US deportees run from one embassy to another in Panama to seek asylum

Deportees are worried that foreign governments and aid organizations were washing their hands of them

Migrants from Afghanistan, Russia, Iran and China deported from the United States and dropped into limbo in Panama hopped door-to-door at embassies and consulates this week in a desperate attempt to seek asylum in any country that would accept them.

The focus of international humanitarian concern just weeks before, the deportees now say they're increasingly worried that with little legal and humanitarian assistance and no clear pathway forward offered by authorities, they may be forgotten.

After this, we don't know what we'll do, said 29-year-old Hayatullah Omagh, who fled Afghanistan in 2022 after the Taliban takeover.

In February, the United States deported nearly 300 people from mostly Asian nations to Panama. The Central American ally was supposed to be a stopover for migrants from countries that were more challenging for the U.S. to deport to as the Trump administration tried to accelerate deportations. Some agreed to voluntarily return to their countries from Panama, but others refused out of fear of persecution and were sent to a remote camp in the Darien jungle for weeks.

Earlier this month, Panama released those remaining migrants from the camp, giving them one month to leave Panama. The government said they had declined assistance from international organizations, instead choosing to make their own arrangements. But with limited money, no familiarity with Panama and little to no Spanish, the migrants have struggled.

Seeking asylum door-to-door  On Tuesday, about a dozen migrants began visiting foreign missions in Panama's capital, including the Canadian and British embassies, and the Swiss and Australian consulates with the hope of starting the process to seek refuge in those countries. They were either turned away or told that they would need to call or reach out to embassies by email. Messages were met with no response or a generic response saying embassies couldn't help.

In one email, Omagh detailed why he had to flee his country, writing please don't let me be sent back to Afghanistan, a place where there is no way for me to survive."  The Embassy of Canada in Panama does not offer visa or immigration services, not either services for refugee. Nor are we allowed to answer any questions in regards to visa or immigration, the response read.

At the British Embassy, a security guard handed asylum-seekers a pamphlet reading Emergency Help for British People. The Swiss consulate told the group they would have to reach out to the embassy in Costa Rica, and handed the migrants a piece of paper with general phone lines and emails printed from the embassy's website.

Canadian, British and Australian diplomats in Panama did not respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press. The Swiss consulate denied that they turned away the asylum-seekers.

Panama limbo  The migrants had travelled halfway across the globe, reached the US border where they sought asylum and instead found themselves in Panama, a country some had traversed months earlier on their way to the US.

Many of the deportees said they would be open to seeking asylum in Panama, but had been told both by international aid groups and Panamanian authorities that it would be difficult, if not impossible, to be granted refuge in the Central American nation.

lvaro Botero, among those advocating for the migrants at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, said he wasn't surprised that they were turned away from embassies, as such help is often only offered in extreme cases of political persecution, and that other governments may fear tensions with the Trump administration.

It's crucial that these people are not forgotten, Botero said. They never asked to be sent to Panama, and now they're in Panama with no idea what to do, without knowing what their future will be and unable to return to their countries.

The Trump administration has simultaneously closed legal pathways to the US at its southern border, ramped up its deportation program, suspended its refugee resettlement program, as well as funding for organisations that could potentially aid the migrants now stuck in Panama.

Over the weekend, the Trump administration sent more than 200 Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador to be held in a maximum-security gang prison, alleging that those expelled were part the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang without providing evidence.

Limited options remain  On Thursday, the migrants visited the Panama offices of the UN refugee agency. Omagh said they were told that the agency could not help them seek asylum in other countries due to restrictions by the Panamanian government. A UN official told them they could help start the asylum process in Panama, but warned that it was very unlikely that Panama's government would accept their claim, Omagh said.

The UN's International Organisation for Migration and the refugee agency did not immediately respond to requests for comment by the AP.

The same day, Filippo Grandi, head of the UN refugee agency, warned that aid cuts by the US government would hurt refugee services around the world.

We appeal to member States to honour their commitments to displaced people. Now is the time for solidarity, not retreat, Grandi said in a statement.

Deportees including Omagh worried that foreign governments and aid organizations were washing their hands of them.

Omagh said that as an atheist and member of an ethnic minority group in Afghanistan known as the Hazara, returning home under the rule of the Taliban would mean death. He only went to the US after trying for years to live in Pakistan, Iran and other countries but being denied visas.

Russian Aleksandr Surgin, also among the group seeking help at the embassies, said he left his country because he openly opposed the war in Ukraine on social media, and was told by government officials he could either be jailed or fight with Russian troops in Ukraine.

When asked Thursday what he would do next, he responded simply: I don't hope for anything anymore.