A group of high-profile lawyers on Saturday filed a suit against Panama over its detention of migrants deported from the United States, threatening to disrupt President Trump’s new policy of exporting migrants from around the world to Central American countries.
The lawsuit, filed against the government of Panama before the Inter-American Commision on Human Rights, names 10 Iranian Christian converts and 102 migrants detained at a camp near a jungle in Panama as plaintiffs, according to a copy seen by The New York Times.
The suit argues that the United States violated the Iranian group’s right to asylum on account of religious persecution and that Panama has violated domestic and international laws, such as the American Convention on Human Rights, in its detention of the migrants.
The lawsuit was filed only against Panama, although one of the lawyers involved said he planned to file a separate complaint against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security this coming week.
Responding to a request for a comment on the lawsuit, a spokeswoman for President Raúl Mulino of Panama, Astrid Salazar, said that the migrants “are not detained” by the Panamanian government. “They are not in our command but rather that of IOM and UNHCR.”
The migrants are being held at a fenced camp guarded by armed Panamanian police officers, and Panama’s security ministry controls all access to the facility. The International Organization for Migration and the U.N. Refugee Agency do not have regular presence at the camp, and have said that they are not in charge of the migrants, but rather are offering some humanitarian support, like providing funds for food.
The suit filed on Saturday requests that the commission issue emergency orders saying that none of the detained migrants at the jungle camp should be deported to their countries of origin.
“Panama’s government has no domestic or international authority to detain people under these circumstances,” said Ian Kysel, associate clinical professor of law at Cornell Law School and the plaintiffs’ lead counsel.
In mid-February the Trump administration opened a new front in its efforts to deport millions of people by sending recently arrived migrants from around the world to Central America. About 300 people were flown to Panama and held at a hotel in Panama City, including the 10 Iranian converts, several children among them.
More than 100 people who did not agree to return to their countries of origin were later transferred to a detention camp near the Darién jungle, where they remain.
The Trump administration has since thanked Panama for its assistance in tackling migration challenges. But the arrival of the deportees and their detentions have created problems for the government of Mr. Mulino, which agreed to take the migrants but has received criticism from the United Nations, human rights activists and lawyers for holding them without criminal charges.
The human rights commission is a seven-member body whose decisions apply to members, including Panama. It is meant to be used when individuals feel their domestic legal options have been exhausted or in cases where irreparable harm is imminent and plaintiffs say they need rapid legal protections.
The commission cannot impose sanctions, but ignoring its decisions could come with political risks.
José Miguel Vivanco, an expert on human rights issues in Latin America, said that if the commission ruled in the plaintiffs’ favor, he thought Panama would comply.
Were the commission to rule in favor of the plaintiffs, halting their deportations, it could make it more difficult for Mr. Trump to convince leaders in Panama and elsewhere to take in migrants the United States does not want to deal with.
After sending the migrants to Panama, the Trump administration sent 200 migrants from Central Asia, the Middle East and Eastern Europe to Costa Rica, including dozens of children. As in Panama, the migrants are being held at a remote facility several hours’ drive from the capital.
Mr. Kysel said similar legal actions are expected against other countries in Latin America, including Costa Rica, that are cooperating with Mr. Trump and accepting deportees.
In both cases, the Central American governments said they planned to deport people quickly to their home countries. In the lawsuit, lawyers argue that for the Iranian Christians deportation would carry “irrefutable harm,” because Iran’s law stipulates that converting from Islam is a crime punishable by death.
“I am afraid of what will happen to me at the hands of the government of Panama,” one of the Iranians, Artemis Ghasemzadeh, said in a sworn declaration filed in the lawsuit. “I still want to seek asylum in the United States and pursue a free life as a Christian there.”
Ms. Ghasemzadeh, 27, who fled Iran in December and made her way from Mexico across the southern U.S. border, has been publicizing their ordeal in media interviews. She first attracted global attention when a video in which she recounted being shackled and deported to Panama spread widely online.
The commission typically issues decisions in such cases within days, said Mr. Vivanco.
The bar for the commission to issue protections to plaintiffs is very high, he said. But given Iran’s policy toward converted Christians, he thought the case had a chance. “I think this is going to get the attention of everyone involved,” he said.
Mr. Kysel said he hoped the lawsuit deterred other countries from participating in Mr. Trump’s deportation plans.
“Panama and any other country in the region face legal liability if they receive, detain and deport asylum-seekers summarily expelled from the United States,” said Mr. Kysel.
The lawsuit is a result of collaboration among lawyers and legal groups in multiple countries.
One of the lawyers, Ali Herischi, who is representing the Iranians pro bono, said he plans on filing a separate lawsuit this week against the Department of Homeland Security. The lawsuit would be on behalf of Ms. Ghasemzadeh and the nine Iranian Christian converts, three of them children, in Panama and three Iranians deported to Costa Rica.
A spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security has previously said that none of the migrants had “asserted fear of returning to their home country at any point during processing or custody.”
Ms. Ghasemzadeh contends she repeatedly asked to fill out paper work for asylum but immigration officials at the camp in California where she was held kept telling her this was not the time.
Mr. Herischi said the motion would challenge the legality of their deportation and requests as a remedy that the group be allowed to apply for asylum in the United States.
