‘This is no life’: Trump deportees unable to return home left in limbo in Panama

If Salana is sent back to Afghanistan, she will be stoned to death. Of that, she is certain.

Yet over the past six months, she has been asked – again and again – whether she will board a repatriation flight.

“I cry and I cry. I tell them I cannot go back – that I will be killed,” she says. “Every time I sleep, I have nightmares of it happening.”

Salana was one of 299 immigrants to be marched on to military planes and deported from the United States to Panama in February. All non-Panamanians, they were some of the first to be expelled by Donald Trump under a third-country deportation agreement, a move that triggered international backlash.

Most have since left Panama – some even attempting to return to the US – but many remain, from countries including Iran, Afghanistan and Ethiopia. With the majority of their asylum applications rejected, they say they are trapped in limbo.

“We are stuck. This is no life. We cannot move forwards,” said Sharity, a Nigerian deportee who fled political violence.

Trump’s decision marked a devastating setback for Salana, who, since the Taliban stormed Kabul, has been trying to find a safe country to settle in.