PANAMA CITY — A U.S. deportation flight carrying 119 migrants, including individuals from Afghanistan, arrived in Panama this week, marking the first transfer under a new agreement in which the Central American nation serves as a stopover for repatriations, President José Raúl Mulino said Thursday.
“Yesterday, a U.S. Air Force flight arrived with 119 people from diverse nationalities,” Mulino said at a press briefing, noting that the group included migrants from Afghanistan, China, Uzbekistan, and Pakistan.
The flight was the first of three planned under the arrangement, which is expected to facilitate the deportation of about 360 people in total. Mulino downplayed the scale of the effort, calling it “not something massive.” The migrants will be housed in a shelter in Panama’s Darién region before being repatriated to their home countries, he said.
Panama agreed to the arrangement at the request of the U.S. government, Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Ruiz Hernández said Thursday. The U.S. is covering the cost of the deportations through United Nations immigration agencies, he added.
The migrants who arrived on Wednesday had been detained after crossing the U.S. border but had no criminal records, according to Ruiz.
The agreement follows last week’s visit to Panama by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio. While discussions focused on U.S. demands to regain control of the Panama Canal, migration enforcement was also a key topic. During the visit, Mulino offered Panama as a transit hub to help facilitate U.S. deportations.
As part of its broader strategy, the U.S. has also secured agreements with Guatemala and El Salvador to accept deported migrants from other nations, laying the groundwork for faster removals.
Illegal migration through the Darién Gap, a treacherous jungle route connecting Panama and Colombia, dropped by about 90% in January compared to the same month last year. Since taking office, Mulino’s administration has overseen dozens of deportation flights, many funded by the U.S. government.
Ruiz emphasized Panama’s cooperation with Washington, saying the country was “completely willing to participate and cooperate in this request.”
