The president of United State Donald Trump has taken Panamanian president up on its offer to act as a stopover for expelled migrants when it received the first U.S. flight carrying deportees from other nations.

President José Raúl Mulino has in a press briefing on Thursday revealed: “Yesterday a flight from the United States Air Force arrived with 119 people from diverse nationalities of the world.”

Mulino confirmed that there were migrants from China, Uzbekistan, Pakistan and Afghanistan, among others, aboard the flight stating further that it was the first of three planned flights that were expected to total about 360 people. “It’s not something massive.”

The migrants were expected to be moved to a shelter in Panama’s Darien region before being returned to their countries, Mulino said.

Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Ruiz Hernández reply a question querying why the country was a stopover for deportees, disclosing that it was something the U.S. government had requested.

Hernández also said the U.S. government was paying for the repatriations through U.N. immigration agencies.

Associated Press reported that the migrants who arrived Wednesday, had been detained after crossing the U.S. border and did not have criminal records.

The U.S. President Donald Trump had last week demanded to retake control of the Panama Canal, Mulino also discussed Panama’s efforts to slow migration through the Darien Gap and he offered Panama as a bridge to send U.S. deportees back to their countries.

Rubio secured agreements on the trip with Guatemala and El Salvador as well, to accept migrants from other nations in what was seen as the laying groundwork for expanding U.S. capacity to speedily deport migrants.

Ruiz said Thursday that Panama “has been completely willing to participate and cooperate in this request they have made of us.”