People who left countries such as Afghanistan and Nigeria in fear of their lives feel abandoned in Central America
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.
