US/Panama: Mass Expulsion of Third-Country Nationals

Denied Right to Seek Asylum and Due Process; Held in Incommunicado Detention

• The United States carried out mass expulsions of 299 third-country nationals to Panama, subjecting them to harsh detention conditions and mistreatment, while also denying due process and the right to seek asylum.
• Many of these people had fled persecution due to ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation, family ties, and political views.
• The United States should process asylum claims of those arriving at the US border and take back people who were wrongfully expelled. Panama should ensure that people in its territory can access full and fair asylum procedures and stop accepting third-country nationals expelled from the United States.

(Washington, DC, April 24, 2025) – The United States carried out mass expulsions of third-country nationals to Panama between February 12 and 15, 2025, denying them due process and the right to seek asylum, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Both the United States and Panama detained people incommunicado and in harsh conditions.

The 40-page report “‘Nobody Cared, Nobody Listened:’ The US Expulsion of Third-Country Nationals to Panama” documents this mass expulsion. Human Rights Watch exposes harsh detention conditions and mistreatment migrants experienced in the United States, along with the denial of due process and the right to seek asylum. It also details migrants’ incommunicado detention in Panama, where authorities kept their phones, blocked visitors, and isolated them from the outside world.

“The United States sent people in shackles to a third country without giving them any chance to claim asylum,” said Bill Frelick, refugee and migrant rights director at Human Rights Watch. “Both the US and Panama have a duty to ensure fair asylum processes—no one should be forcibly returned to danger without a full and fair assessment of their refugee claims.”

Human Rights Watch conducted private, in-person interviews with 48 of the 299 third-country nationals—people who are neither citizens of the United States nor Panama—expelled from the United States to Panama. The group included 15 men, 32 women, and one child, originating from Afghanistan, Angola, Cameroon, China, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Iran, Nepal, Pakistan, Russia, Somalia, Sri Lanka, and Uzbekistan.

The people expelled to Panama had all crossed the US border from Mexico since the inauguration of President Donald Trump on January 20, 2025. Many of these people had fled persecution due to ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation, family ties, and political views.

On Inauguration Day, President Trump declared an “invasion” at the US-Mexico border and barred irregular border crossers from seeking asylum, despite US law that affords people at the border and in the United States the right, irrespective of their status, to seek asylum, Human Rights Watch said.

A 27-year-old woman from Iran had fled her country after converting to Christianity fearing arrest and persecution by authorities, as converts face serious human rights violations and can even be sentenced to death. She told Human Rights Watch that she repeatedly asked for asylum once in the United States: “I didn’t understand why they didn’t listen to me. Then an immigration officer told me President Trump had ended asylum, so they were going to deport us.”

All those Human Rights Watch interviewed had intended to seek asylum in the United States and many had gone to great effort to communicate to the US authorities their desire to seek asylum and the fear of return to their home countries. However, none of them were interviewed about the reasons for leaving their countries or asked if they had a credible fear of returning to their countries of origin.

“I may not be a legal immigrant, but the US has a legal system, but I did not see it,” said a woman who had fled China. “Nobody told me anything. They didn’t allow me to say anything.” She said she had fled China because she was “afraid and in pain” from “government control of all aspects of life.”

The US government detained these people in harsh conditions. They were often kept in very cold rooms, prevented from contacting family and lawyers, and either lied to or not told what was happening to them, including when they were handcuffed and shackled, and marched onto military planes bound for Panama.

A 21-year-old woman from Afghanistan fleeing a forced marriage had been detained for 10 days in the United States, when one morning officers came and called off names and made them line up. “When they called my name that morning, I was so happy because I thought they were going to release us,” she said. However, she and others were put on US military planes. They had no idea where they were being flown. People realized they were in Panama only after landing.

In Panama, authorities held them in what amounted to incommunicado detention first at a downtown hotel in Panama City and later at an immigration “reception station” in the Darién province, which borders Colombia. The authorities withheld their phones, prevented them from having visitors, and made other efforts to keep them from contacting the outside world.

They were released in early March, when Panamanian authorities issued them 30-day, extendable up to 90 days, “humanitarian permits” and told them they should use that time to leave the country, either by returning to their home countries or going to some other country. In April, Panamanian authorities extended the permits for another 60 days.

Of the 299 expelled, 180 were later returned to their home countries under the International Organization for Migration’s (IOM) “assisted voluntary return” program; though the conditions of their confinement and the limited options they were given raise serious doubts about whether the returns were voluntary.

A 28-year-old gay man from Russia who fled persecution based on his sexual orientation, said he spoke several times with IOM officials. “I told them that 100 percent I would be arrested if I returned … But IOM only said, ‘You have no other option but to go to your country…’ They kept ignoring what I was telling them.”

The United States should stop expelling or transferring noncitizens to third countries. It should allow those wrongfully removed to return and seek asylum in line with its international obligations. Most importantly, the United States should stop violating the principle of nonrefoulement—that is, not returning people to a country where they are likely to face harm—by processing asylum claims at its border, rather than outsourcing this responsibility to countries with limited capacity to assess claims or provide protection.

Panama should cease accepting third-country nationals from the United States. If transfers are resumed, they should only occur under a formal agreement that ensures strict adherence to due process and international law, including access to full and fair asylum procedures and respect for the principle of nonrefoulement. Panama needs to guarantee that those it has already agreed to accept can access full and fair asylum procedures.

“However wrongfully these asylum seekers were expelled from the United States and whatever might be done in the future to rectify their mistreatment at the hands of the US government, Panama is now responsible for protecting them,” Frelick said. “That starts with giving them a full and fair hearing on their claims for refugee status.”

During the embargo period “‘Nobody Cared, Nobody Listened:’ The US Expulsion of Third-Country Nationals to Panama” is available at:
https://www.hrw.org/preview-link/node/391050/8bfffd33-c429-4212-9113-50d8941c7c2c

Upon release, it will be available at:
https://www.hrw.org/node/391050

For more Human Rights Watch reporting on the United States, please visit:
https://www.hrw.org/united-states

For more Human Rights Watch reporting on Panama, please visit:
https://www.hrw.org/americas/panama

For more Human Rights Watch reporting on Refugee and Migrant Rights, please visit:
https://www.hrw.org/topic/refugees-and-migrants

For more information, please contact:
In Washington, DC, Bill Frelick (English): +1-240-593-1747 (mobile); or frelicb@hrw.org. X: @BillFrelick
In New York, Michael Garcia Bochenek (English, Spanish, Portuguese): +1-718-724-9016 (mobile); or bochenm@hrw.org. Bluesky: @michaelbochenek.bsky.social
In Quito, Martina Rapido Ragozzino (Spanish, English): +1-646-906-2141 (mobile); or rapidom@hrw.org. X: @MartinaRapidoR