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By Elida Moreno
PANAMA CITY (Reuters) - A group of nearly 100 migrants deported from the U.S. to Panama last week has been moved from a hotel in the capital to the Darien jungle region in the south of the country, Panama's government said on Wednesday.
In a statement, Panama's security ministry said of the 299 migrants deported from the U.S. in recent days, 13 had been repatriated to their countries of origin while another 175 remained in the hotel in Panama City awaiting onward journeys after agreeing to return home.
The migrants have been staying at the hotel under the protection of local authorities and with the financial support of the United States through the U.N.-related International Organization for Migration and the U.N. refugee agency, according to the Panamanian government.
The migrants include people from Afghanistan, China, India, Iran, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Turkey, Uzbekistan and Vietnam, according to Panama's president, Jose Raul Mulino, who has agreed with the U.S. to receive non-Panamanian deportees.
The deportation of non-Panamanian migrants to Panama is part of the Trump administration's attempt to ramp up deportations of migrants living in the U.S. illegally.
One of the challenges of Trump's plan is that some migrants come from countries that refuse to accept U.S. deportation flights due to strained diplomatic relations or other reasons.
The arrangement with Panama allows the U.S. to deport these nationalities and makes it Panama's responsibility to organize their repatriation.
The process has been criticized by human rights groups that worry migrants could be mistreated and also fear for their safety if they are ultimately returned to violent or war-torn countries of origin, such as Afghanistan.
Susana Sabalza, a Panamanian migration lawyer representing one of the families transferred to the San Vicente shelter in the Darien region, said she had not been able to see her clients while they were held at the hotel in Panama City and is seeking permission to visit them at their new location.
She declined to identify their nationality, but said they were a Muslim family who "could be decapitated" if they returned home.
Sabalza said the family would be requesting asylum in Panama or "any country that will receive them other than their own."
The security ministry statement said 97 migrants had been transferred to the shelter in the Darien region, which includes dense and lawless jungle separating Central America from South America.
In recent years, it has become a corridor for hundreds of thousands of migrants aiming to reach the United States. Eight more migrants would be moved there soon, the statement added.
Early on Wednesday, the hotel in Panama City where the migrants had been held appeared quiet, according to a Reuters witness.
On Tuesday some migrants had been seen holding hands and looking out of a window of the hotel to get the attention of reporters outside.
Migrants in the hotel were not allowed to leave, according to media reports.
A Chinese national, Zheng Lijuan, escaped from the hotel, according to Panama's migration service, but was later caught in Costa Rica and returned to Panama.
(Reporting by Elida Moreno in Panama City; writing by Stephen Eisenhammer; Editing by Leslie Adler and Neil Fullick)
