Panama: Inter-American Court Sees Progress for Migrants; CEJIL Differs

PANAMA (AP) — The Inter-American Court of Human Rights (Inter-American Court of Human Rights) visited the jungle province of Darién to examine compliance with the urgent measures that the Court ordered Panama to carry out to protect the health and lives of thousands of migrants, mostly Haitians, amid the new coronavirus pandemic.

The President of the Inter-American Court, Ricardo Pérez Manrique, who led the tour in Darién, said on Friday in a press conference that “we have seen progress and a willingness to see this resolved.” “Our task will be to measure the volume of such progress in relation to what the original purpose of the Court was in declaring the measures.”

The officials of the Inter-American Court were in Panama for three days. Pérez Manrique said that in addition to the trips to the migrant reception camps on the border with Colombia, the Inter-American Court held a private hearing and that the agency will present a report that would determine whether or not the measures it ordered Panama to comply with are maintained.

In contrast, the Center for Justice and International Law (CEJIL) said in a statement — in relation to the judgment of the Inter-American Court and almost two years after the granting of measures in favor of migrants — that “Panama has not fully complied with what was ordered by the Court.”

He added that “immigration detention continues to be a systematic practice in the province of Darién, where, as described by the authorities, at no stage of the reception procedure are there individualized interviews with people in conditions of mobility to determine that detention is necessary and proportionate”.

He also emphasized in his statement that “it is worrying that the phenomenon of sexual violence along the way remains systematic”.

The Inter-American Court's journey to Darién is part of the process that followed a resolution issued in mid-2020 in which the Court, based in the Costa Rican capital, ordered Panama to immediately and effectively ensure access to essential health services without discrimination to all migrants held in the camps in Darien.

The mandate was in favor of migrants held in temporary shelters in the communities of Peñitas and Lajas Blancas, where, due to the pandemic, a couple of thousand migrants were confined for a while in 2020 after crossing the inhospitable jungle of Darién, on the border with Colombia.

At present, the transit of migrants through the jungle Colombian-Panamanian border is smooth and has declined considerably. However, in 2021 the situation was overwhelmed due to the considerable increase in migrants and the Panamanian authorities registered more than 134,000 foreigners in transit, mainly Haitians. That has been the largest amount since it was recorded.

Panama had to urgently call for a joint effort among the countries involved in this flow — those that serve as arrival, passage and destination — in order to establish measures for more controlled transit.