President Juan Carlos Varela promised in campaign that he would replace the “Crisol de Razas” (melting pot) migratory fairs by an improved system.
Two years later, not only has he breached that promise, but also his administration is trying to impose an immigration program that has already been labeled as "unconstitutional" by the National Association of Lawyers (CNA).
It is about the Executive Decree 167 of 3 June 2016, which establishes the General Migratory Regularization procedure.
"I see it simply equal to the previous program. “They are even using the same legal framework to prolong the stay of immigrants in the country", said Alfonso Fraguela, of the Movement of Unionized Lawyers (MAG).
MAG Member and lawyer Zulay Rodriguez adds that with this Decree, President Juan Carlos Varela "does not complies with his promise of campaign which was stopping the “Crisol de Razas” program but also he is not allowing the National Assembly to approve of a law that addresses this subject in a reasonable manner ".
The most remarkable differences with relationship to the previous “Crisol de Razas” fair would be that now the immigrants must show a valid proof of their affiliation to the Caja de Seguro Social (which does not necessarily make them contributors) or declare tax on the income (which neither means that they are paying taxes).
With the new program the immigrant is handed a temporary permit issued for a period of two years.
The amounts for these migration services are established in the following manner: $500 for citizenship with an agreement abolishing the visas (which is the case of the majority of the countries of the region); $1,000 for nationality without an agreement abolishing the visas (which applies to countries that require Panamanians to have a visa) and $2,000 for "restricted nationalities".
Panama America inquired the National Service of Migration (SNM) so as to learn, from their perspective, what are the benefits that this new program would represent for the country.
By means of a note sent to this medium of communication, the official entity said that "the procedure of general regularization of immigration and the process of extraordinary migratory regularization for people from the People's Republic of China will fix each year the maximum number of immigrants whose situation could be regularized through these procedures in the following calendar year, all this in a timely and transparent manner".
It was also confirmed that the National Service of Migration is renewing the permits only to those people that obtained their residence through any of the previous “Crisol de Razas” fairs.
But a statement made by the Nacional Association of Lawyers (CNA) about this matter identifies all the serious shortcomings of the program concerned, stressing that it focuses only on the economic aspect, with no scientific study of the impact of migration and in relation to the safety of the rest of the Panamanians.
Income to the Country
For the President of the CNA, Jose Alberto Alvarez, the Government would only be looking at the program as a source of income.
"If they say that they will not charge anything, that would be a humanitarian act, but that is not the case. We agree with an immigration law and a regularized process for all these citizens. With what we disagree is the State policy promoting these circumstances and charging these people to fill the coffers of the State" he said.
All this led a protest last week held in the premises of the Migration Offices, where lawyers of the CNA, artisans and real estate agents demanded the repeal of the two recent decrees on migration regulation.
In this regard, the SNM responded only that "peaceful protests are allowed in Panama", but the program continues.
Based on this fact, the CNA already filed a lawsuit for invalidity before the third Supreme Court chamber.
Juan Carlos Arauz, Vice President of the CNA, confirmed to Panama America that "the Commission of Migration is also working on a recourse of unconstitutionality", concerning the special treatment that is given to the Chinese, in detriment of the right of equal opportunities of other nationalities.
"But the most worrying part is that there is no scientific study of how much it will cost the State having an immigrant in the territory, for example, with expenses incurred in the use of public transport, health or education", denounced the jurist.
Security
Jaime Abad, lawyer and former director of the Technical Judicial Police (PTJ), warned of other latent migratory problems.
The expert in security recognized that many immigrants come to Panama with valid purposes, but the ease of enter permits is also exploited by the organized crime.
"The organized crime is investing in legitimate businesses: car wash, car workshops, and beauty salons, restaurants aimed to control zones and wash that money in the local market... This is a movement that did not occur in the past ", he said yesterday in an interview with TVN.
He also recognized the effort of the agents of the National Service of Borders (Senafront), but added that "we need to accept that our country has its borders almost completely open... and anything can happen!”
Apart from liability or negligence of the current Government, Mr. Abad believes that "as a society, we have to make an effort to review all the immigration and border controls".
He reiterated that while we have policies of " fully open borders, in there every kind of things transit: illicit money, weapons, people…".
Juan Carlos Araúz sums it up that "at the end of the day, we can state that there is an absence of a holistic immigration policy".
