Speaking to the press at the end of a visit to migrant reception centers in areas such as Pago Chiquito, San Vicente and Lajas Blancas, in the Darien Forest, Ricardo Perez, president of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, acknowledged that there has been progress in concern for these people.
Asked what he valued about that short stay, Perez said he was personally concerned about the human perspective behind the story of each of the migrants interviewed.
In this sense, he noted that the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights had issued three advisory opinions, relating not only to Panama but the entire region, one from 2008, on undocumented migrants.
He noted that the other query referred to consular assistance. and the third, from 2014, to the status of minors in all that international mobility represents.
This visit of the delegation of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights reviewed compliance with the measures imposed on the isthmus, as a result of the case of Ecuadorean Juan Vélez, who was arrested and imprisoned in 2002, and who was actually deported to his country of origin after a year as a victim of torture and ill-treatment in the prisons where he remained In which.
We must evaluate and issue conclusions at the plenary session of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, which will hear the reports of the judges who accompanied us on the visit, together with the highest authorities of the Ministries of Safety and Health of Panama, and the General Secretariat for Children and Adolescents. Ombudsman for People’s Affairs, Immigration and National Borders, he said.
Perez cautioned that the presence or absence of judicial procedures in general does not excuse Panama or any other country from complying with immigration policies that respect basic human rights principles.
In an interview with journalists, the Ombudsman of Panama, Eduardo Lublin, for his part, commented that the institution he runs frequently reviews the situation of migrants on the ground, whose number has significantly decreased.
In this regard, he explained that if the number of people who traveled through the Daren Forest heading north in 2021 averaged 15-20 thousand per month, then this year it decreased to about four thousand in the same period.
He noted that some of the recommendations of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, such as ensuring vaccination against Covid-19 for all immigrants, are impossible to comply with due to the same mobility as these people.
Also in an interview about her impressions, the director of the Center for Justice and International Law, Claudia Paz, suggested that measures related to Panama should be preserved because the risks of Covid-19 remain and there are reports of acts of sexual abuse. the girls.
acl / ga
“Award-winning alcohol trailblazer. Hipster-friendly internetaholic. Twitter ninja. Infuriatingly humble beer lover. Pop culture nerd.”