Institute for Migrant Rights
Railway line at Cianjur station, c. 1890 · KITLV, CC BY 4.0

Migration Jurisprudence from the South › Panama

Vélez Loor v. Panama

Inter-American Court of Human Rights · Panama · 2010-11-23 · Regional court or body

Citation: Series C No. 218
Type of case: Constitutional and human rights
Outcome: Decided for the migrant side

Question

May a state punish irregular migration with prison, and in what conditions may migrants be detained?

What the court decided

Prison sentences to punish irregular migration are incompatible with the American Convention; migrants may be detained only when necessary and proportionate, apart from people held for crimes, with access to consular assistance.

In plain language

A man from Ecuador was arrested in Panama for entering without papers, sent to prison and mistreated. The Inter-American Court said countries may not jail people just for migrating irregularly, and that detained migrants must be kept apart from prisoners and allowed to contact their consulate.

Dalam bahasa sederhana

Seorang pria dari Ekuador ditangkap di Panama karena masuk tanpa dokumen, dipenjara dan dianiaya. Pengadilan HAM Antar-Amerika menyatakan negara tidak boleh memenjarakan orang hanya karena bermigrasi tanpa dokumen, dan migran yang ditahan harus dipisahkan dari narapidana serta boleh menghubungi konsulatnya.

Pertanyaan: Bolehkah negara menghukum migrasi tidak teratur dengan penjara, dan dalam kondisi apa migran boleh ditahan?

What happened afterwards

  • 2002-11: Arrested in Panama.
  • 2010-11-23: Violations found; reparations ordered.
  • 2013-02-13: Court’s compliance review: medical-care payment made, other measures pending.

Sources

Open this decision in the interactive collection (compare, filter, Indonesian view, downloads).

Cite as: Institute for Migrant Rights (2026), Migration Jurisprudence from the South, version 0.1, https://theimr.org/court-decisions/d/velez-loor-2010/. This page summarizes a court decision for research and advocacy; it is not legal advice.

For researchers

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