World News | US Deports 119 Migrants from Several Nations to Panama
Get latest articles and stories on World at LatestLY. Panama has received the first US 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.
Panama City, Feb 14 (AP) Panama has received the first US 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.
“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, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with Mulino in Panama. While US 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 US 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. (AP)
(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)