It is a mess. There is really no other way to describe the bottleneck currently happening at the base of the Central American isthmus. You’ve probably seen the headlines about the Darien Gap, that lawless stretch of jungle between Colombia and Panama. But there is a different, more bureaucratic crisis brewing on the other side. Lately, a growing number of asylum seekers deported from the U.S. are stranded in Panama, caught in a geopolitical pincer movement that they never saw coming.
They thought the journey ended in Texas or Arizona. It didn’t.
Instead of being sent back to their home countries—places like Venezuela, Ecuador, or even nations across the Atlantic—many are being flown or bussed to Panama under new enforcement agreements. The logic from the U.S. side is basically "return them to the last safe country." But Panama isn't exactly prepared to be the world's waiting room. The shelters are bursting. Resources are thin. People are sleeping on cardboard.
The Panama Deal You Might Have Missed
In mid-2024, the U.S. and Panama signed a Memorandum of Understanding. It sounds boring and clinical. It isn't. The U.S. agreed to pay for repatriation flights to help Panama manage the flow of migrants through its territory. The goal was simple: deter people from crossing the Darien Gap by showing them that even if they reach the U.S. border, they’ll just end up right back where they started—in Panama.
But here is the reality.
Many of these people have zero ties to Panama. They didn't grow up there. They don't have family there. They just passed through it on their way north. When they get dropped back off, they find themselves in a legal limbo. Panama's President José Raúl Mulino has been vocal about "closing" the Darien, but you can’t really close a jungle. You can only make the lives of the people inside it more difficult.
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The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is pushing these flights as a success. From a logistical standpoint, maybe it is. From a human perspective? It’s a loop. You have people who sold everything they owned to make it to the U.S., only to be deposited in a country that is effectively a transit zone. Honestly, it's a recipe for a secondary humanitarian crisis.
Why Panama is Struggling to Cope
Panama is a small country. Its population is roughly 4.5 million. When you have hundreds of thousands of people crossing the Darien Gap annually, the infrastructure snaps.
The "Lajas Blancas" and "San Vicente" reception centers were designed for temporary stays. A few days, maybe. Now, because of the deportation delays and the "bottleneck effect" created by U.S. policy, people are staying for weeks. The Panamanian government is trying to keep up, but they’re basically asking the international community for a checkbook that isn't always open.
- Food shortages in the camps are becoming a weekly occurrence.
- Medical teams from organizations like Doctors Without Borders (MSF) have faced hurdles in providing consistent care due to shifting government regulations.
- Safety is a massive concern; the "Gulf Clan" and other cartels control the routes leading into Panama, and that violence often follows the migrants into the camps.
It's not just about the numbers. It's about the "stuckness." Imagine being told you're being deported, but instead of going "home," you're dropped in a province like Chiriquí or Darién with no money and no clear path forward. You can't go back through the jungle—that's suicide. You can't easily go forward because the border is tightened. You're just... there.
The Misconception About "Safe Third Countries"
A lot of folks think that if someone is in Panama, they are safe. "Why can't they just stay there?" is a common question.
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It’s complicated.
Panama doesn’t have the same asylum infrastructure that the U.S. or even Mexico has. Their system is tiny. Processing a single refugee claim can take years. Furthermore, the job market in Panama isn't set up to absorb tens of thousands of Venezuelan or Haitian laborers overnight. Most of these stranded individuals don't have work permits. If they work, they work "under the table," which leads to exploitation.
We also have to talk about the "Externalization of Borders." This is a fancy term for when a powerful country (the U.S.) pays a smaller country (Panama) to do its immigration enforcement. It’s a strategy we’ve seen the EU use with Libya and Turkey. It works for the statistics in Washington, but it creates a pressure cooker in the transit country.
The Reality of the Repatriation Flights
The U.S. funded these flights to the tune of $6 million as an initial pilot. The idea was to send people back to their actual home countries, but diplomatic hurdles make this a nightmare.
Take Venezuela. Diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Caracas are, to put it mildly, nonexistent. You can't just fly a U.S. government plane into Caracas and drop off 150 people. So, what happens? The migrants get stuck in the middle. Panama becomes the default destination because it’s the most "cooperative" partner in the region willing to take the flights.
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The result? Asylum seekers deported from the U.S. are stranded in Panama because the final leg of their journey home is blocked by a wall of red tape and bad blood between governments.
What This Means for Future Migration
If you think this will stop people from coming, the data says otherwise. History shows that when you block one route, people find a more dangerous one.
When Panama started putting up barbed wire in parts of the Darien, the smugglers just moved the routes further into the highlands or out to sea. This "stranded" population in Panama is now a prime target for human traffickers. Smugglers approach these desperate people in the camps and promise them a "secret" way back to the U.S. for a few thousand dollars.
It’s a cycle.
The U.S. deports them to Panama.
They get stranded.
They get desperate.
They pay a smuggler to try again.
Actionable Insights and Next Steps
If you are following this crisis or looking for ways to understand the impact, here is what actually matters moving forward:
- Watch the Diplomacy: The "success" of these deportation programs depends entirely on whether Panama can secure agreements with countries like Venezuela and Colombia to move people out of Panama. If those agreements fail, the "stranded" population will only grow.
- Monitor the Darien "Closures": Keep an eye on the official Panamanian government reports regarding the number of "blocked" trails. If the numbers of people entering the jungle don't drop, but the number of people stuck in Panama increases, the policy is failing its primary objective.
- Support Local NGOs: While big international groups are there, local Panamanian charities are the ones doing the heavy lifting in towns like Metetí. They are the ones providing the "extra" meals and clothing that the government-run camps often lack.
- Advocate for Transparency: There is very little public data on exactly who is on these U.S.-funded flights and what legal counsel they were offered before being sent to a third country. Pressure for transparency on the "Memorandum of Understanding" is key for human rights advocates.
The situation is fluid. It’s messy. But most of all, it’s a reminder that geography doesn’t stop being a factor just because a policy is signed in an air-conditioned office in D.C. For the thousands currently sitting in the heat of Panama, the "American Dream" hasn't just ended; it's been replaced by a very long, very uncertain wait in the jungle.