Panama migrant: say lawyers

Cnn
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They say for days that they are locked up in a hotel in Panama, surrounded by strict security with limited contact with the outside world.

Almost 300 migrants from Asia, all of which were deported by the United States, were recorded there by the Panamaic authorities, who agreed to accept them and finally repatriate them. It is part of the Trump administration’s mass protection campaign, in which Latin American nations put pressure on it.

Some migrants were brought to a remote camp on the edge of a jungle that only a few can access, and lawyers who represent some of the migrants said CNN. Now you are waiting to find out if you are sent back to the countries you have fled, or to another nation that is ready to receive them.

But the conditions with which they are confronted are worrying and may have violated their rights, the lawyers said.

The migrants arrived in Panama City last week after they were deported from the USA. Some didn’t even know that they were flown to another country until they had actually landed in Panama, lawyer Ali Herischi, who said: “They said they would go to Texas.”

The migrants were then sent to the Decapolis Hotel and forced to stay there for days without stepping outside.

Jenny Soto Fernández, a Panamaic lawyer who represents about 24 migrants from India and Iran, said her clients lived isolated, fear and uncertainty.

She said that many of them did not know their rights and, after deporting, would not have received any orders of the distance. They are also confronted with language barriers and are constantly concerned, withdrawing, she added.

One of the migrants is Artemis Ghasemzadeh, an Iranian citizen who fled for fear of persecution for fear of persecution.

“According to Islamic law, you cannot convert from Islam to another religion,” said Herischi, who represents it.

Ghasemzadeh now fears that her life will be at risk when she has returned to Iran.

“We are in danger,” she said on Tuesday in text messages to CNN. “We are waiting for (a) miracles.”

In the hotel, some migrants tried to express their concerns by gathering journalists outside. They stood in front of their windows and stopped paper pieces with handwritten notes that beg for support.

“Please help us,” was a sign. “We are not in our country (sure).”

Another message was written directly to the window with lipstick. “Help us,” read it in fat, red letters.

The migrants were not allowed to leave the hotel “for their own protection”, Panama’s security minister Frank Ábrego told a local radio program on Wednesday. He said they were partially held in the hotel because the officials had to “effectively check who these people who arrive in our country”.

Soto argues that migrants have the right to look for asylum because they flee from persecution.

“These people who request refugees (status) – it is not because they want to come here on an adventure or a trip. No, they escape. They are victims of violence and persecution, ”she told CNN.

Soto said she tried at least four times to meet her customers in the hotel to sign legal documents that the authorities asked for, but was blocked by civil servants and never made it beyond the lobby.

Soto sent CNN a video that was shot by her customers and showed how she waved them from the hotel staircase below and tried to give them the paperwork. But customers were prevented from going down and Soto was asked to go.

“They were actually so emotional, screamed and said: ‘I want my lawyer! I want her. I want to talk to her. I don’t want to talk to these people here, ”said Soto.

Attorney Susana Sabalza told CNN that she represents a family from Taiwan, who was held in the hotel for five days without knowing what happened.

She said, although they had comfortable beds and accommodation, they were under “Psychological pressure, which was closed there with security officers, immigration police, (and) officials.”

CNN has contacted the Panama Security Ministry and the International Organization for Migration (IOM), which is involved in the return efforts.

Panamaic President José Raúl Mulino denied on Thursday that the authorities have violated laws.

“These organizations respect human rights. It’s wrong and I deny that we abuse you, ”insisted mulino.

Security Minister Ábrego said on Wednesday that he hadn’t heard of migrants who requested asylum there.

“But if you believe that you have the need to ask for asylum to ask asylum, we have to pay attention to it and approved or disapprov,” he added.

CNN has contacted Panamas National Office for refugee support to determine whether someone has submitted an asylum saying.

The Panamaic government said that from Tuesday to Wednesday around 97 migrants brought out of the hotel and drove to a remote camp on the outskirts of the Darién jungle. It happened after a report by the New York Times revealed the despair of people stranded in the hotel in Panama City.

The miracle that Ghasemzadeh had hoped for did not come. Hours after talking to CNN, she became one of those brought to the camp. Her relatives said that on Tuesday evening she found out that she would have pulled out of the hotel with about 12 other people and that she didn’t know where the authorities would get her from at that time.

Herischi, who represents Ghasemzadeh and nine other refugees, told CNN that his customers were arrested in a “very bad” camp.

He said they described the website as hard and dirty, with limited access to medication and the Internet.

A family has a sick child who could be cried in the background during a call between Herischi and Panamanian officials in the background.

Sabalza said that the family who represents her was also brought to the camp.

“It is complicated because there are children who are five years old (and) it is a tropical place,” she told CNN.

She said the Panamaic authorities had not yet given them any guidelines for how the lawyers can visit their customers at the camp or whether they need special permits to enter them.

“It is urgent that we have clarity about the intellectual and physical state of health of our (customers),” she said.

When the migrants arrived at the goal on Wednesday morning, Herischi said that the situation was so disorganized that the guards did not even have a list of the names of the migrants to identify them on arrival. The guards later confiscated all the cell phones of the migrants.

“It shows that (it is) such an unorganized and cute (situation) and only ad hoc-political decision to accept this, but they don’t know what to do with them,” he told CNN.

He added that he was planning to take legal steps against Panama and the USA before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and the US Federal Court.

More than 100 migrants have asked not to reclaim, said Panamaic officials.

The IOM is expected to work with them and try to find a third country that will accept it, said Security Minister Ábrego.

In the meantime, President Mulino said that another group of migrants would be sent to the camp because “they can feel comfortable there”.

He added that 175 migrants who are still in the hotel voluntarily agree to return to their countries of origin. At least 13 have already been sent back.

Herischi said that the Panamaic authorities assured him that they would not send Ghasemzadeh and other migrants back to Iran if they expressed fear of reprisals. Instead, officials said they would talk to the messages of other countries to see if they could accept them.

Herischi Castle: “The only” luck “you got is that Panama has no relationship with Iran, so there is no Iranian message there.”

“It’s a good thing.”