Cubans in Panama ‘Irregularly’ Will Have to Leave the Country / 14ymedio

The director of Caritas Panama, Deacon Victor Berrío, speaks to Cubans. (Courtesy)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Miami, 13 January 2017 — The more than 100 Cubans who are in Panama illegally must leave, according to the director of Panama’s National Immigration Service, Javier Carrillo. “They will not be deported, but immigration law applies,” the senior official told 14ymedio.

Under that law, migrants “in an irregular situation” could be returned by air to Cuba or taken to Colombia from where they entered Panamanian territory. More than 80 Cubans are in the shelter set up by Caritas to welcome the immigrants.

To a question about the situation of Cubans who do not have a visa to return to Colombia, Carrillo responded: “Is your country not a place?”

“What Obama did is abominable. We did not expect it. We may have some hope when Donald Trump takes power,” says Andrés, one of the Cubans who have set out on the long road from the island to the US.

To a question about the situation of Cubans who do not have a visa to return to Colombia, Carrillo responded: “Is your country not a place?”

According to Deacon Victor Luis Berrio, head of Caritas in Panama, Cubans are not illegal immigrants but “special immigrants.”

“We are waiting for the change of government in Washington. In the worst case, the Church will intercede in their favor so that they are treated in a special way,” he speculates.

According to statistics from Panama’s National Migration Service provided to 14ymedio, during 2016 more than 750 foreigners were returned to their countries of origin. Of these, only 5 were Cubans.

Most Cubans who arrive in Panama have entered from the border with Colombia, where they travel after traveling without a visa from Cuba to Guyana or the Lesser Antilles.

Two large groups of Cubans were transferred through an airlift that the Government of Panama agreed with Mexico last year. In total, about 5,000 Cubans left on those occasions, but the flow of migrants continued.

“So far [Panama] Immigration has not told us anything nor have officials come here. We have to wait, we have no choice, “says Andres.