AFTER weeks of lawsuits and human rights criticism, Panama released dozens of people on Saturday held for weeks in a remote camp after being deported from the US, telling them they have 30 days to leave.

Many including Hayatullah Omagh, a 29-year-old who fled Afghanistan in 2022 after the Taliban took control, are in legal limbo.

“We are refugees, Mr Omagh said, “we do not have money. We cannot pay for a hotel in Panama City, we do not have relatives.”

“I can’t go back to Afghanistan under any circumstances … It is under the control of the Taliban, and they want to kill me. How can I go back?"

The Panamanian authorities have said deportees will have the option of extending their stay by 60 days if they need it, but after the options for Mr Omagh and many others are unclear. 

Mr Omagh climbed off a bus in Panama City alongside 65 others from China, Russia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Nepal and other nations after spending weeks detained in poor conditions by the Panamanian government, which has said it wants to work with the Trump administration “to send a signal of deterrence” to people hoping to migrate.

Human rights groups and lawyers advocating for the migrants were waiting at the bus terminal, and scrambled to find the released migrants shelter and other resources. Dozens of other people remained in the camp.

Among those getting off buses were migrants fleeing violence and repression in Pakistan and Iran, and 27-year-old Nikita Gaponov, who fled Russia due to repression for being part of the LGBTQ+ community and who said he was detained at the US border, but not allowed to make an asylum claim.

“Once I get off the bus, I'll be sleeping on the ground tonight,” Mr Gaponov said.

Others turned their eyes north once again, saying that even though they had already been deported, they had no other option than to continue after crossing the world to reach the US.

The deportees, largely from Asian countries, were part of a deal stuck between the Trump administration and Panama and Costa Rica as the US government attempts to speed up deportations.

The administration sent hundreds of people, many families with children, to the two central American countries as a stopover while authorities organise a way to send them back to their countries of origin.

Critics described it as a way for the US to export its deportation process.

The agreement fuelled human rights concerns when hundreds of deportees detained in a hotel in Panama City held up notes to their windows pleading for help and saying they were scared to return to their own countries.

Under international refugee law, people have the right to apply for asylum when they are fleeing conflict or persecution.

Those that refused to return home were later sent to a remote camp near Panama’s border with Colombia, where they spent weeks in poor conditions, were stripped of their phones, unable to access legal council and were not told where they were going next.

Lawyers and human rights defenders warned that Panama and Costa Rica were turning into “black holes” for deportees, and said their release was a way for Panamanian authorities to wash their hands of the deportees amid mounting human rights criticism.

Those who were released Saturday night, like Mr Omagh, said they could not return home to Afghanistan. He only went to the US after trying for years to live in Pakistan, Iran and other countries but was denied visas.

Mr Omagh was deported after presenting himself to US authorities and asking to seek asylum, which he was denied.

“My hope was freedom. Just freedom,” he said. “They didn’t give me the chance. I asked many times to speak to an asylum officer and they told me ‘No’.”

Still, he said that leaving the camp was a relief. Mr Omagh and others who spoke to reporters detailed scarce food, sweltering heat with little relief and aggressive Panamanian authorities, who deny accusations about camp conditions, but blocked journalists from accessing the camp and cancelled a planned press visit last week.