Panama to launch deportation flights to China and India, as well as regional neighbors

Panama will deport over 100 people from China, India, Ecuador and Colombia, in a widening crackdown on the number of migrants traveling north through Central America, President Jose Mulino announced on Thursday.

The deportation flights are part of Panama’s partnership with the US that aims to discourage irregular migration northward – a growing phenomenon in recent years.

Panama plans to send 70 people to India on September 3, and an unspecified number of Chinese migrants, Mulino said without providing details.

Flights carrying dozens of Ecuadorians and Colombians will also depart in the coming days, he said, noting that Ecuadorians represent the second-largest group of migrants in the region, after Venezuelans.

Twenty-nine Colombians were already sent back on an earlier flight under the same program.

A growing number of US-bound migrants have been crossing into Panama from the Darién Gap, a treacherous rainforest region connecting South and Central America. The Biden administration has been trying to push migrants back from the US southern border by setting up processing centers in Latin America and encouraging neighboring nations to step up border enforcement measures.

So far this year, more than 230,000 people have entered Panama through the Darién.

This marks a 30% increase in crossings compared to the same period from January to August 2023, Panama’s migration agency chief Roger Mojica said Tuesday.