Indian deportees from U.S. arrive in Panama

Migrants deported from the U.S. gesture as they look out the window of the Decapolis Hotel where they are temporarily staying in Panama City, on February 18, 2025.
| Photo Credit: AFP

Panama has informed India about the safe arrival of a group of Indians deported from the U.S. and the Indian mission in the country is working closely with the host government to ensure their wellbeing after obtaining consular access to them.

The Embassy of India in Panama, Costa Rica & Nicaragua took to ‘X’ on Thursday (February 20, 2025) to share the information but did not provide data on the number of Indians arriving in Panama.

The group of Indians is part of a larger group of 299 migrants sent to Panama by the U.S. government.

These people arrived in the country on three flights last week after President Jose Raul Mulino agreed that Panama would become a “bridge” country for deportees.

The Trump administration has pledged to deport millions of people who crossed illegally into the U.S..

“Panamanian authorities have informed us that a group of Indians have reached Panama from the U.S.,” the Embassy of India in Panama, Nicaragua and Costa Rica posted on X.

“They are safe and secure at a Hotel with all essential facilities. The embassy team has obtained consular access We are working closely with the host Government to ensure their wellbeing,” it said. Three batches comprising a total of 332 Indians have already been sent back to India from the U.S. amid an intensified crackdown by the Trump administration against illegal immigrants.

Out of the 299 undocumented migrants who landed in Panama, only 171 have agreed to return to their countries of origin.

Ninety-eight deportees who refused to voluntarily be repatriated to their countries have been sent to a camp in Panama’s Darien province.

Costa Rica is the second country that agreed to serve as a “bridge” to repatriate illegal immigrants in the U.S.