As Trump ‘Exports’ Deportees, Hundreds Are Trapped in Panama Hotel
The administration has asked Panama to take in hundreds of people who can’t easily be sent back to their countries. Many say they are in danger.
Dated: 2025-02-18. Added: 2025-03-13.
It’s interesting that the US is dealing with the same issue with asylum seekers as Europe. Like, they mentioned that one of the asylum seekers was from Iran and felt her life was in danger because she had converted to Christianity. Fair, she can seek asylum on those grounds. But then it explains that she went through Mexico to reach the US. Mexico doesn’t persecute Christians, so her life wasn’t in danger there. Why didn’t she claim asylum there rather than continuing to the US. When asylum seekers cherry pick their destination like that it makes it so that a few countries take on the lion’s share of the burden of caring for asylum seekers and builds resentment. Sending them to Panama isn’t the right response, obviously. But if the wider global community doesn’t find a solution to this problem and stop asylum seekers from passing through multiple safe countries before claiming asylum, that resentment is going to feed right wing politics who then try and pull bs like this.