A group of high-profile lawyers on Saturday filed a suit against Panama over its detention of migrants deported from the US, threatening to disrupt President Trump’s new policy of exporting migrants from around the world to Central American countries.

The lawsuit, filed against the government of Panama before the Inter-American Commision on Human Rights, names 10 Iranian Christian converts and 102 migrants detained at a camp near a jungle in Panama as plaintiffs, according to a copy seen by The New York Times.

The suit argues that the US violated the Iranian group’s right to asylum on account of religious persecution and that Panama has violated domestic and international laws, such as the American Convention on Human Rights, in its detention of the migrants.

The lawsuit was filed only against Panama, although one of the lawyers involved said he planned to file a separate complaint against the US department of homeland security this coming week.

Responding to a request for a comment on the lawsuit, a spokeswoman for President Raúl Mulino of Panama, Astrid Salazar, said that the migrants “are not detained” by the Panamanian government. “They are not in our command but rather that of IOM and UNHCR.”

The migrants are being held at a fenced camp guarded by armed Panamanian police officers, and Panama’s security ministry controls all access to the facility. The International Organization for Migration and the UN Refugee Agency do not have regular presence at the camp, and have said that they are not in charge of the migrants, but rather are offering some humanitarian support, like providing funds for food.

The suit filed on Saturday requests that the commission issue emergency orders saying that none of the detained migrants at the jungle camp should be deported to their countries of origin.

“Panama’s government has no domestic or international authority to detain people under these circumstances,” said Ian Kysel, associate clinical professor of law at Cornell Law School and the plaintiffs’ lead counsel.

In mid-February the Trump administration opened a new front in its efforts to deport millions of people by sending recently arrived migrants from around the world to Central America. About 300 people were flown to Panama and held at a hotel in Panama City, including the 10 Iranian converts, several children among them.

More than 100 people who did not agree to return to their countries of origin were later transferred to a detention camp near the Darién jungle, where they remain.

New York Times News Service