Its principles Panama they deported 130 yesterday immigrants from the territory of the Central American state, where they entered through the dangerous crossing of the Darien jungle, as part of a bilateral agreement with the US government to deal with irregular immigration.

It is the first deportation of the species outside the Americas under the deal and the fourth in a row since the accord was signed in July.

Panamanian immigration director Roger Mohica told media that the migrants were deported because they were in the country “irregularly,” on a charter flight bound for New Delhi.

As part of the agreement, Washington pledged more than six million dollars to repatriate migrants who crossed the Darien jungle.

“The United States is grateful to the Government of Panama for its support,” said Marlene Piñeiro, the U.S. Central America Security Commissioner for ICE. “Irregular immigration cannot continue,” he added.

In the first phase, immigrants with a criminal record were deported, but the agreement effectively covers anyone who enters Panamanian territory through the Darien jungle.

This 266-kilometer strip, which is a natural border between Colombia and Panama, has been transformed in recent years into a passage for hundreds of thousands of migrants who try to reach the US territory by crossing Central America and then Mexico.

Since January, more than 240,000 people, the vast majority of them nationals of Venezuela, but also of Ecuador, Haiti, Cuba, as well as some countries in Asia and Africa, have crossed the inhospitable and mountainous jungle, an area infested by gangs which blackmail or rob them.

Many were brutally treated and some lost their lives.

On the other side of the border, in Colombia, the crossings are organized and supervised by gangs of criminals.