The small Caribbean town of Miramar has been steadily receiving a trickle of dozens of migrants.
Girls warn that they are not safe in their countries.
Migrants cry for their lives; 171 have accepted voluntary repatriation.
Panama has become the last major obstacle for hundreds of migrants who failed to settle in the United States to continue their return journey to South America, unable to return on foot through the Darien jungle, due to a lack of flights, or an overly expensive sea route.

https://www.laestrella.com.pa/panama/nacional/frustracion-en-la-frontera-migrantes-venezolanos-atrapados-en-panama-por-falsas-promesas-DL11385204
In recent weeks, the small Caribbean town of Miramar has been receiving a steady stream of dozens of migrants arriving there after being promised, on social media or according to authorities, that they would be able to board boats at affordable prices to continue their journey by sea.

But once there, the words most repeated by the migrants interviewed by EFE are “lie” and “deception.”

“The boat isn’t leaving. That’s a lie. The boat won’t take us if we don’t have $150. And the boats leave for $260,” warns Venezuelan Evilys Díaz , traveling with her two children, ages 8 and 11, in a message addressed to other migrants who may be considering using that route.

Díaz had been in Miramar for almost a week when EFE interviewed her. She was sleeping in a space rented for her on the porch of a house and, like other migrants, was waiting to receive money from a relative or for Panamanian authorities to help them cover the cost of their trip on one of the cargo ships that would take them, after more than a day of travel, to the port of La Miel, on the border with Colombia.

Her final destination is Chile, she says, from where she left just over a year ago with her children en route to the United States. They crossed the Darien jungle, she was “kidnapped with the children” in Tapachula, Mexico, where they were released after paying 4,000 pesos (about $200), traveled north on a freight train, and waited two months in Ciudad Juárez for an appointment with CBP-One to legally enter the United States.

However, with Donald Trump’s inauguration on January 20 and his more restrictive immigration policies, they opted to enter the United States on their own.

They followed a train track on foot, accompanied by another woman with two children and a young man, until they were intercepted by immigration. They spent four days in various shelters “eating frozen burritos,” and on January 29, they were deported on a flight to Villahermosa, in southern Mexico.

Like Díaz, 29-year-old Venezuelan Jonathan Harry Castro was also deported on a flight to Villahermosa after crossing the Rio Grande and turning himself and his wife in to immigration in the United States.

The return through Central America

The return journey then went smoothly through Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and even Costa Rica, where they turned themselves in and were admitted to the Temporary Migrant Care Center (CATEM) in the south of the country.

They spent eight days there, following the protocol agreed upon with Panama, taking buses for $60 to the Panamanian shelter of Lajas Blancas, near the Darien jungle, where they stayed for about 15 days.

Castro had been excited by Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino’s declaration that they were working with the Colombian government on the possibility of bringing Venezuelan citizens by air to Cúcuta, near the border with Venezuela, but those flights never took off.

As an alternative, Panamanian authorities bused Castro and his wife along with other migrants from the shelter in Darién to Miramar, in the Caribbean province of Colón, where large boats and launches had begun departing for the Colombian border for several weeks.

The young man insists he was deceived, that members of the Panamanian security forces had told him he wouldn’t have any problems boarding at the port of Miramar, that “one could talk to the boat owners who could help us, and it was a lie, that wasn’t the case either,” and he claims the immigration service “washed its hands” and left them there “adrift.”

“We really need you to tell us what you can do to help us. We’re not asking you to take us for free, but at least to support us, to put your hands on your hearts and accept the little we have, even if it means giving us a phone number, whatever it is, but the idea is to get out of here,” he explains.

According to the latest data from the National Immigration Service , 4,337 migrants have arrived in Panama since November through the reverse migration flow, of which 4,108 are Venezuelan, 140 are Colombian, and 29 are Peruvian, among other nationalities. Of these, more than 700 are minors.

After unsuccessfully attempting to enter the United States, 29-year-old Venezuelan Randall Josué Ovalle feels “defeated, tired” as he waits in Miramar for a chance to board one of the boats.

“We were robbed, scammed, everything, and well, we already saw the decision, thank God, we are here well, with (…) health, with more strength than ever to continue (…). But with everything we have been through, right now we are without money and trying to find a way to be able to get to our destination again, to reunite with our family, our children,” he laments.