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
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.