PANAMA CITY (AP) — They crossed oceans to get to the U.S., fleeing battle, spiritual persecution, poverty and authorities crackdowns in nations resembling Afghanistan, Somalia, Cameroon, China, Pakistan and Iran.
After flying to Central and South America, they bused by nations the place they didn’t communicate the language and walked by unfamiliar jungle to get to the U.S.-Mexico border.
Inside days, they have been detained and placed on army plane that flew almost 300 of them to Panama as U.S. President Donald Trump sought to speed up deportations to extra sophisticated locations.
Panama was imagined to be a stopover. However for these unwilling to return residence — largely out of well-founded worry — Panama despatched them to a guarded camp with out entry to legal professionals in the identical Darién jungle many had crossed months earlier on their means north.
Over the previous week, underneath authorized strain, the Panamanian authorities dropped them off at a bus station within the capital with 30 days to determine the place they’ll go subsequent.
“It feels like the whole world is crushing down on me. It’s like everything is stopping,” stated Isha Len, a 29-year-old from Cameroon. “I risked everything, my life, everything, crossing the Darién Gap, just to be sent back.”
Listed below are the tales that among the deportees instructed The Related Press:
Isha Len, 29, Cameroon
After battle broke out in her small city, Len crossed Cameroon by automobile and minibus, then a fisherman buddy carried her 4 hours by boat to Nigeria.
Len, a schoolteacher, flew to Sao Paulo, Brazil, the place she stated authorities detained her for a month within the airport. From there, she wound north by South America by bus, following different migrants till they reached the Darién Hole.
She walked days by the harmful jungle that divides Colombia and Panama earlier than boarding buses that carried her by Central America. After being kidnapped for days by a gang in Guatemala, she crossed into southern Mexico, the place she took a ship alongside the Pacific coast to evade authorities. After she landed, she rode eight hours to Mexico Metropolis, persevering with on by bus and automobile to Tijuana.
She crossed the U.S. border and introduced herself to American authorities.
Artemis Ghasemzadeh, 27, Iran
Artemis Ghasemzadeh left her nation in January, fleeing after changing from Islam to Christianity – one thing that would value Ghasemzadeh her life in Iran. She flew to Dubai, the place she stayed two weeks after which took a flight to South Korea.
From there she flew to Mexico Metropolis, staying there for 3 weeks earlier than going to Tijuana. She crossed the U.S. border on Feb. 9, and was detained for 5 days, together with her birthday.
“For changing your religion, your punishment is death,” she stated. “We don’t know what will happen.”
Wang Qiu, 53, China
Wang Qiu stated he left residence after he was imprisoned for 3 years for talking out about democracy and human rights points.
He flew from Beijing to Cuba, then to the small South American nation of Suriname. From there, he traveled by land: by Guyana, Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia, earlier than trekking by the Darién Hole.
He moved up by Central America and Mexico earlier than being detained after crossing into the U.S. in San Diego.
Qamar Abdi, 19, Somalia
Qamar Abdi, left for the U.S. on Aug. 17, as a result of warfare between the federal government and militants of al-Shabab, which the U.S. acknowledges as a terrorist group.
She hopped from buses to shared vehicles for almost a month till she reached South Africa. From there, she flew to Sao Paulo, Brazil, and spent the following six months driving buses north.
When she arrived on the northern tip of Colombia, she traveled six days by the Darién Hole, touchdown in Panama on New Yr’s Day.
She took buses to the southern Mexican border metropolis of Tapachula, the place she was quickly kidnapped and robbed by a gang. To keep away from immigration authorities, she traveled hours packed on a ship with different migrants alongside Mexico’s Pacific coast, then took a bus to Mexico Metropolis. She spent two weeks there earlier than driving to Tijuana, the place she crossed into the U.S.
Ebrahim Ghezelgechi, 36, Iran
Ebrahim Ghezelgechi fled Iran together with his spouse, Sahar; 10-year-old daughter, Aylin; and 11-year-old son, Sam, on Nov. 21.
The household flew to Brazil, then to Panama and eventually Nicaragua. From there, they took buses north to Guatemala, then crossed into southern Mexico by boat. They rode on prime of trains and in buses and vans to get to Tijuana.
After Mexico authorities despatched them again to the southern a part of the nation, they took a aircraft to the resort space of Los Cabos. There, they have been detained, had their passports taken and have been despatched again south once more.
They tried getting north quite a few instances, punted again by Mexican authorities, earlier than ultimately paying a driver to take them to Tijuana.
After crossing into the U.S., they have been detained in San Diego for per week.
Samin Haider, 21, Pakistan
Samin Haider left for Dubai in 2023 after violence surged in his area of Parachinar, which borders Afghanistan and has been plagued for many years by conflicts between Shi’ite and Sunni Muslim communities.
Haider was there for 1 1/2 years earlier than the United Arab Emirates canceled visas for Pakistanis.
Haider then flew to Mexico and traveled to the U.S.-Mexico border with the hopes of looking for asylum.
Now deported to Panama, he nonetheless hopes to achieve the U.S.
Elham Ghaedi, 29, Iran
Elham Ghaedi left on Oct. 21, flying to Brazil after which to Venezuela’s capital Caracas.
She traveled to Colombia, the place took a bus north after which walked 5 days by the Darién Hole.
She stayed 15 days in a migrant camp in southern Panama earlier than taking a bus by Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala and to Mexico’s southern border. There, migration authorities detained her for six days.
She traveled north to Mexico Metropolis, the place she spent a month, earlier than boarding a flight to Tijuana. U.S. authorities detained her when she crossed to San Diego.
Hayatullah Omagh, 29, Afghanistan
Omagh fled Afghanistan in 2022 after the takeover of the Taliban as a result of he recognized as an atheist and was a part of an ethnic minority, one thing that would put his life at risk.
He first went to Pakistan, the place he acquired a visa for six months, and struggled to get a brand new one as a result of his Afghani passport.
He then went to Iran and labored there for 1 1/2 years. However the nation wouldn’t settle for him as a refugee.
He managed to get a visa to Brazil, which provided quite a few Afghan folks refuge after the rise of the Taliban, and flew to Sao Paulo in 2024.
Hoping to reunite with family and friends within the U.S., Omagh paid smugglers to maneuver him north by Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia. He trekked by the Darién Hole, then took buses north by Central America to southern Mexico.
Mexican authorities detained him and dropped him again in southern Mexico just a few instances earlier than he managed to take a flight to Mexico Metropolis and later to the U.S., the place he was detained.
“After so much time, I’ve lost hope,” he stated.
