FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - Panama PTY detains 100's of passengers daily! I was one of them this week
Old Mar 2, 2019, 6:35 am
  #1  
20111
 
Join Date: Mar 2019
Posts: 5
Exclamation Panama PTY detains 100's of passengers daily! I was one of them this week

I have just been released from a harrowing and extremely unpleasant 30 hours detention at panama PTY airport for no valid reason!
No food, water, phone call, information or english speakers meant I just had to sit in a windowless empty room for 30 hours not knowing what I had done, or if I would ever be released.
Eventually they led me up to a gate and put me on a flight back to my origin, with no explaination given.

As a british citizen i usually travel freely without visa to most countries and when i checked my flight to Trinidad via PTY Panama I wasn't concerned about needing a visa. However when I landed there were officers checking people off the plane and I got grabbed along with a few others (who I have not seen before or since.)
I was led to a room with a couple of guys wearing US immigration tags and who seemed to be checking people with an intention of heading north to the US.
I have no interest or reason to go to the US and dont need a visa for that anyway, so have no idea why I was hauled in. They wanted to know the reason for my travel and confiscated my phone & laptop, then said I had to wait for 'enquiries'
This turned into 30 hours of extreme worry and inhuman treatment without any legal oversight or care for human rights (no food, water, communications, or access to consular advice)
I post this thread as a warning and am also reporting to UK foreign office, to warn all travellers not to connect via PTY - unless you dont mind facing the same treatment that happened to me.
I am a white, middle aged, married businessman, smartly dressed, no criminal or other history that would explain the situation I was put into. (aside from a speeding ticket in the US several years ago) Now I am wondering is the US controlling Panama and so forcing them to filter every single passenger according to US whim of who is 'acceptable' to enter south America region. It seems this is actually happening!
While I was detained there were literally over 100 people in the same situation as me, mainly from S America regional countries, but also chinese and middle eastern origin nationals. No one knew why they were detained and the staff made absolutely no effort to process us quickly.
They simply left us to wait for as long as they legally could (i found out later that they immigration has 24 hours to make a decision) before finally bothering to call the airline to send people home.
warning to all - avoid PANAMA at any cost. its an unsafe airport to pass through and there should be a warning to all travellers before booking tickets
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