PANAMA CITY — Panama has received the first U.S. flight carrying deportees from other nations as the Trump administration takes Panama up on its offer to act as a stopover for expelled migrants, the Central American nation's president said Thursday.
US deports 119 migrants from a variety of nations to Panama
Panama has received the first U.S. flight carrying deportees from other nations as the Trump administration takes Panama up on its offer to act as a stopover for expelled migrants, the Central American nation's president said Thursday.
By The Associated Press
February 13, 2025 at 5:22PM
''Yesterday a flight from the United States Air Force arrived with 119 people from diverse nationalities of the world,'' President José Raúl Mulino said Thursday in his weekly press briefing. He said there were migrants from China, Uzbekistan, Pakistan and Afghanistan aboard.
The president said it was the first of three planned flights that were expected to total about 360 people. ''It's not something massive,'' he said.
The migrants were expected to be moved to a shelter in Panama's Darien region before being returned to their countries, Mulino said.
Last week, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with Mulino in Panama. While U.S. President Donald Trump's demands to retake control of the Panama Canal dominated the visit, Mulino also discussed Panama's efforts to slow migration through the Darien Gap and he offered Panama as a bridge to send U.S. deportees back to their countries.
Migration through the Darien Gap connecting Panama and Colombia was down about 90% in January compared to the same month a year earlier.
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