immigration

Proposed changes criticized

The bill to reform the country's immigration policy is ready and it is possible that it will be approved today by the executive branch, Ministro de Gobierno y Justicia Daniel Delgado Diamante said yesterday.

The minister said that the stage of consultations with stakeholder groups ended Monday and that several changes were made to the bill.

"We collected the recommendations given to us that were consistent with the spirit of the law," Diamante said.

But the minister's optimism was not shared by lawyers from the Comisión Migratoria del Colegio Nacional de Abogados (CNA). Luis Corro, a former adviser to the Dirección de Migración and a member of that committee, said that the CNA's concerns have not been addressed.

"It has been three weeks of silence," he said.

Corro called for the law to address the issue of foreigners that have lived in Panama for years who have not been naturalized.

The draft of the initiative envisages that the Dirección Nacional de Migración will be recast as the Servicio Nacional de Migración, an autonomous entity that will have expanded powers.