In Apparent Quid Pro Quo Deal, Panama and Costa Rica Facilitating U.S.-Sponsored Human Rights Violations of Asylum Seekers
Statement from Refugees International:
“Panama and Costa Rica are now facilitating U.S.-sponsored human rights violations by detaining asylum seekers unlawfully blocked from seeking refuge in the United States. Both countries have also agreed to coordinate their repatriation, potentially sending people back to grave harm and persecution across the world. The repatriation effort is being fully funded by the United States government.
These bilateral arrangements with Panama and Costa Rica appear to be even more flagrant violations of international law than the Trump administration’s first-term ‘asylum cooperative agreement’ with Guatemala, which Refugees International found had exposed asylum seekers to chain refoulement. Not only did the United States fail to screen the asylum seekers before their transfer to Panama, but neither Panama nor Costa Rica will offer them access to protection.
Instead, the de-facto plan in Panama and Costa Rica is to detain refugees until they agree to return to their home countries or another country agrees to receive them. Reporting indicates that refugees at Panama’s San Vicente reception station at the edge of the Darien Gap are being denied access to counsel and cellular phones, in addition to living in makeshift and inadequate conditions that are “like a zoo,” according to one of the 97 people transported there on Tuesday. And, as its name suggests, the Temporary Attention Center for Migrants (CATEM) in Costa Rica is only equipped to shelter and provide specialized services to vulnerable migrants temporarily, disallowing them from leaving the center except for special circumstances.
These arrangements appear to be a quid pro quo deal wherein Panama and Costa Rica facilitate human rights violations to avoid punitive U.S. economic measures. When referencing the plane carrying dozens of children and parents from Asian countries, between the United States and Costa Rica, President Chavez said “If [the U.S.] impose[s] a tax in our free zones, it’ll screw us. I don’t think they’ll do it, thank God …200 [migrants] will come…and they will leave.” This is a shocking statement from the president of a country that has long positioned itself as a defender of human rights and respectful of international law.
The United States, Panama, and Costa Rica must stop facilitating refoulement and guarantee asylum seekers access to international protection. Panama and Costa Rica must also uphold their detention laws and not allow the Trump administration to use these arrangements to circumvent U.S. restrictions on prolonged detention of asylum seeking families. Members of Congress should utilize their oversight authority to investigate the usage of appropriated funds for repatriation flights by Panama and Costa Rica, given that the funds were not to be used to potentially enable refoulement.
The cascading erosion of human rights and the blatant disregard for international law must stop.”
For more information or to schedule an interview, please contact Etant Dupain at edupain@refugeesinternational.org.