Panama Prepares to Accept Refugees

On Tuesday President Juan Carlos Varela offered Panama's assistance to European countries to accept refugees displaced by violence in the Middle East. Yesterday, the Foreign Ministry started preparing for meetings to discuss accepting immigrants from Iraq and Syria.

Sandra Lombardo, director of International Cooperation has said that meetings have been established with the International Committee of the Red Cross, civil defense agency Sinaproc and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to assess the implications in terms of costs and logistics. Meanwhile Immigration official Tayra Barsallo said that the issue of integrating refugees into Panama's society must be carefully analyzed.