The revelation that Panama has become a destination for immigrants from countries whose governments have not agreed to take them back follows repeated threats by Donald Trump to seize the Panama Canal, whose ownership was handed to the Panamanian government in 1999 under the terms of a treaty signed with the US.
A military plane carrying 119 immigrants from countries including Afghanistan, Iran, Uzbekistan, China, Sri Lanka, Turkey and Pakistan flew from California to Panama City on Wednesday in what was expected to be the first of three migrants flights to the country.
The US has sent undocumented immigrants from several Asian countries whose governments have refused to accept them to Panama, in a move signalling an intensification of the Trump administration’s deportation effort.
Panama is the latest Central American nation to agree to accept immigrants of other countries expelled from the US after El Salvador and Guatemala offered similar arrangements.
The agreement to accept migrants appears to have resulted from a visit to Panama last week by Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state.
