A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Panama is in the middle of a complicated migrant crisis. So in the past, hundreds of thousands of migrants crossed the country to make it to the U.S. But with President Trump in office, thousands of migrants are headed the other way. The Trump administration has also flown nearly 300 migrants to the country, and the Panamanian government is trying to figure out what to do with them. NPR's Eyder Peralta is traveling toward the Darien Gap from Panama City. Eyder, so let's start with that planeload of migrants. What happened?
EYDER PERALTA, BYLINE: Hey, A. So, I mean, all of this is an effort by President Trump to speed up deportations. It means the U.S. is now sending Panama and Costa Rica migrants who aren't easy to report from countries like Iran, Eritrea and Vietnam. And the problem here is that they arrived two weeks ago, and Panama doesn't seem to know what to do with them. Some are still at a hotel in Panama City. Others, who told authorities they wouldn't go back home, got sent to a detention facility at the edge of the jungle. Their lawyers have not been able to visit them. They have not been allowed to make phone calls. We went to the hotel, and the migrants waved at us from their windows. But we were not allowed in, and they were not allowed out. We're now headed toward that jungle facility, where we've already been told we will not be allowed in, but we're trying anyway. The lawyers for some of these migrants tell us that they feel like they're living in a kind of purgatory.
PERALTA: You know, they've said that they have run background checks on these migrants and that none of them are criminals. And they have promised to respect their human rights. Yesterday, reporters asked the president, Jose Raul Mulino, then why are they being denied access to their lawyers? And he said simply, I don't know. I followed up with him. I asked him, but doesn't this worry you?
PRESIDENT JOSE RAUL MULINO: (Speaking Spanish).
PERALTA: And what he's saying there is, "of course it worries me. But isn't it curious that these poor people would have lawyers in Panama?" I asked him what he meant by that, but he cut me off. He said that he wouldn't answer any more questions.
MARTÍNEZ: OK. That's one group of migrants, but now we're hearing about north-to-south migration. So how's that playing out?
PERALTA: More than 2,000 migrants have entered Panama from Costa Rica since Trump took office, and it's messy. The migrants are basically retracing the grueling trail they had already taken north. And they tell us that when they reach the jungle, Panamanian authorities are not letting them through, or they're taking them to a detention camp. So hundreds of them are instead taking small boats south to Colombia. Last week, a little girl drowned after one of these boats capsized. We went to an island off the coast here, and there were dozens of migrants trying to find a way back home. One of them was Marta, who was 59. She only gave us her first name, for security reasons. And she says she crossed the jungle twice, and then waited for an appointment for months in Mexico City. But when Trump came into office, all those doors closed, and she decided to head back home. And maybe, she said, this was a test from God.
MARTA: (Speaking Spanish).
PERALTA: And what she's saying there is, "maybe we didn't value our past life. And maybe now we're - now that we're headed back home, our life will change." "I know," she said, "that God has something good prepared for us."
MARTÍNEZ: That's NPR's Eyder Peralta, traveling toward the Darien Gap from Panama City. Eyder, thank you.
PERALTA: Thank you, A. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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