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Chinese woman recaptured after escape from Panama hotel holding hundreds deported by US

Panama’s security minister blames ‘human traffickers’ for woman’s brief escape from hotel accommodating detained migrants

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Chinese woman recaptured after escape from Panama hotel holding hundreds deported by the US

Chinese woman recaptured after escape from Panama hotel holding hundreds deported by the US
Associated Press

Panamanian authorities said they recaptured a woman who had escaped confinement from a Panama hotel where she and nearly 300 deportees from the United States were being held as they awaited repatriation to their countries on Wednesday.

Earlier in the day, Panama’s National Immigration Service said they were searching for a Chinese woman, who had received assistance in breaking out from people loitering around the hotel. It said it asked the alleged collaborators to return the woman, warning that they could face human trafficking or migrant smuggling charges.

It came after the Panamanian government received sharp criticisms on Tuesday as images began to circulate of some of the 299 migrants detained at the hotel, who under police guard and barred from leaving, held up notes from their windows reading things like “please help us” and “We are not safe in our country”.

On Wednesday afternoon, Security Minister Frank Abrego wrote on a post on social platform X that she was found abandoned near a migrant processing facility along the northern Panama-Costa Rica border, a high-transit point for migrants headed toward the US.

People hold hands at the window of the hotel. Photo: Reuters
People hold hands at the window of the hotel. Photo: Reuters

While it was not clear if she was found in Panama or in Costa Rica, he blamed her brief escape on “human traffickers”.

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