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PANAMA CITY: They crossed oceans to get to the US, fleeing conflict, religious persecution, poverty and government crackdowns in countries such as Afghanistan, Somalia, Cameroon, China, Pakistan and Iran.
After flying to Central and South America, they bused through countries where they didn’t speak the language and walked through unfamiliar jungle to get to the US-Mexico border.
Within days, they were detained and put on military aircraft that flew nearly 300 of them to Panama as US President Donald Trump sought to accelerate deportations to more complicated destinations.
Panama was supposed to be a stopover. But for those unwilling to return home — mostly out of well-founded fear — Panama sent them to a guarded camp without access to lawyers in the same Darién jungle many had crossed months earlier on their way north.
Over the past week, under legal pressure, the Panamanian government dropped them off at a bus station in the capital with 30 days to figure out where they will go next.
“It feels like the whole world is crushing down on me. It’s like everything is stopping,” said Isha Len, a 29-year-old from Cameroon. “I risked everything, my life, everything, crossing the Darién Gap, just to be sent back.”
Here are the stories that some of the deportees told The Associated Press:
Isha Len, 29, Cameroon
After conflict broke out in her small town, Len crossed Cameroon by car and minibus, then a fisherman friend carried her four hours by boat to Nigeria.
Len, a schoolteacher, flew to Sao Paulo, Brazil, where she said authorities detained her for a month in the airport. From there, she wound north through South America by bus, following other migrants until they reached the Darién Gap.
She walked days through the dangerous jungle that divides Colombia and Panama before boarding buses that carried her through Central America. After being kidnapped for days by a gang in Guatemala, she crossed into southern Mexico, where she took a boat along the Pacific coast to evade authorities. After she landed, she rode eight hours to Mexico City, continuing on by bus and car to Tijuana.
She crossed the US border and presented herself to American authorities.
Artemis Ghasemzadeh, 27, Iran
Artemis Ghasemzadeh left her country in January, fleeing after converting from Islam to Christianity – something that could cost Ghasemzadeh her life in Iran. She flew to Dubai, where she stayed two weeks and then took a flight to South Korea.
From there she flew to Mexico City, staying there for three weeks before going to Tijuana. She crossed the US border on Feb. 9, and was detained for five days, including her birthday.
“For changing your religion, your punishment is death,” she said. “We don’t know what will happen.”
Wang Qiu, 53, China
Wang Qiu said he left home after he was imprisoned for three years for speaking out about democracy and human rights issues.
He flew from Beijing to Cuba, then to the small South American country of Suriname. From there, he traveled by land: through Guyana, Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia, before trekking through the Darién Gap.
He moved up through Central America and Mexico before being detained after crossing into the US in San Diego.
Qamar Abdi, 19, Somalia
Qamar Abdi, left for the US on Aug. 17, due to warfare between the government and militants of Al-Shabab, which the US recognizes as a terrorist group.
She hopped from buses to shared cars for nearly a month until she reached South Africa. From there, she flew to Sao Paulo, Brazil, and spent the next six months riding buses north.
When she arrived at the northern tip of Colombia, she traveled six days through the Darién Gap, landing in Panama on New Year’s Day.
She took buses to the southern Mexican border city of Tapachula, where she was temporarily kidnapped and robbed by a gang. To avoid immigration authorities, she traveled hours packed on a boat with other migrants along Mexico’s Pacific coast, then took a bus to Mexico City. She spent two weeks there before driving to Tijuana, where she crossed into the US
Ebrahim Ghezelgechi, 36, Iran
Ebrahim Ghezelgechi fled Iran with his wife, Sahar; 10-year-old daughter, Aylin; and 11-year-old son, Sam, on Nov. 21.
The family flew to Brazil, then to Panama and finally Nicaragua. From there, they took buses north to Guatemala, then crossed into southern Mexico by boat. They road on top of trains and in buses and vans to get to Tijuana.
After Mexico authorities sent them back to the southern part of the country, they took a plane to the resort area of Los Cabos. There, they were detained, had their passports taken and were sent back south again.
They tried getting north a number of times, punted back by Mexican authorities, before eventually paying a driver to take them to Tijuana.
After crossing into the US, they were detained in San Diego for a week.
Samin Haider, 21, Pakistan
Samin Haider left for Dubai in 2023 after violence surged in his region of Parachinar, which borders Afghanistan and has been plagued for decades by conflicts between Shi’ite and Sunni Muslim communities.
Haider was there for 1 1/2 years before the United Arab Emirates canceled visas for Pakistanis.
Haider then flew to Mexico and traveled to the US-Mexico border with the hopes of seeking asylum.
Now deported to Panama, he still hopes to reach the US
Elham Ghaedi, 29, Iran
Elham Ghaedi left on Oct. 21, flying to Brazil and then to Venezuela’s capital Caracas.
She traveled to Colombia, where took a bus north and then walked five days through the Darién Gap.
She stayed 15 days in a migrant camp in southern Panama before taking a bus through Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala and to Mexico’s southern border. There, migration authorities detained her for six days.
She traveled north to Mexico City, where she spent a month, before boarding a flight to Tijuana. US authorities detained her when she crossed to San Diego.
Hayatullah Omagh, 29, Afghanistan
Omagh fled Afghanistan in 2022 after the takeover of the Taliban because he identified as an atheist and was part of an ethnic minority, something that could put his life in danger.
He first went to Pakistan, where he got a visa for six months, and struggled to get a new one due to his Afghani passport.
He then went to Iran and worked there for 1 1/2 years. But the country wouldn’t accept him as a refugee.
He managed to get a visa to Brazil, which offered a number of Afghan people refuge after the rise of the Taliban, and flew to Sao Paulo in 2024.
Hoping to reunite with friends and family in the US, Omagh paid smugglers to move him north through Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia. He trekked through the Darién Gap, then took buses north through Central America to southern Mexico.
Mexican authorities detained him and dropped him back in southern Mexico a few times before he managed to take a flight to Mexico City and later to the US, where he was detained.
“After so much time, I’ve lost hope,” he said.