US deports to Panama nearly 120 migrants of different nationalities

PANAMA CITY (Reuters) - The United States deported 119 people of different nationalities to Panama as part of an agreement between the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump and the Central American nation, Panama's President Jose Raul Mulino said on Thursday.

The first flight from the U.S., carrying people from Afghanistan, China, India, Iran, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Turkey, Uzbekistan and Vietnam, arrived on Wednesday, and two more will land soon, Mulino said at a press conference. In total the U.S. will send Panama 360 people on the three flights.

Before being returned to their respective countries, the deportees will be transferred to a shelter near the Darien - the jungle separating Central America from South America which countless migrants traverse in a bid to reach the U.S.

"Through a cooperation program with the U.S. government ... yesterday (Wednesday) a U.S. Air Force flight arrived with 119 people of the most diverse nationalities in the world," Mulino said.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Earlier this month, after talks with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Mulino stressed that sovereignty over the Panama canal is not up for debate. However, he outlined the possibility of repatriating more migrants.

Mulino at that meeting also announced that a memorandum of understanding signed in July with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security could be expanded so Venezuelans, Colombians and Ecuadoreans can be returned from the perilous Darien Gap at U.S. cost, through an airstrip in Panama.

Panama deputy minister for security Luis Icaza said that thanks to bilateral collaboration between Panama and the U.S. the flow of migrants crossing the Darien was reduced by 90% in January, compared with the same month a year earlier.

(Reporting by Elida Moreno; Additional reporting by Ted Hesson in Washington DC and Diego Ore in Mexico City; Editing by Nia Williams)

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