CITY OF PANAMA – The number of migrants who have crossed the inhospitable Darien jungle this year on their way to the United States is lower than in 2023, the head of Panama’s border police reported on Wednesday.
“Compared to last year, there are fewer migrants,” said the director of the border police (Senafront), Commissioner Jorge Gobea.
So far in 2024, 212,000 people have crossed the Darien River from Colombia, 9,000 fewer than in the same period in 2023, he added.
This decline comes at a time when Panamanian authorities have closed several trails used by migrants in this inhospitable jungle.
From January 1 to July 31, 2023, 251,000 people crossed the Darien, according to official Panamanian figures.
Gobea reported that “more than 4.7 kilometers” of the jungle border have been fenced off, which includes “more than five clandestine crossings used by organized crime to move migrants from Colombia to Panama.”
However, at this time the influx of migrants also decreased in previous years due to the poor weather conditions typical of the beginning of the rainy season.
“Closure of the pass”
Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino took office on July 1 with the promise of closing the border to migrants entering Panama through the Darién.
He also promised to repatriate them to their countries of origin, although in a recent interview his Minister of Security, Frank Ábrego, said that the repatriations would be voluntary.
Mulino’s government signed an agreement with the United States under which Washington will provide six million dollars to finance repatriation flights and other expenses.
Panamanian authorities confirmed last week that several jungle crossings had been closed, and in recent days videos have been posted on social media showing migrants standing in front of barbed wire in the jungle.
“The intention (of these closures) is to channel this flow, not to interrupt the migratory movement, but to be able to take them through a single place” to avoid them being attacked by criminal gangs, said Gobea.
In 2023, more than half a million migrants crossed the Darien, despite the great dangers that it entails, such as fast-flowing rivers, wild animals and criminal groups. Most of them were Venezuelans, but there were also Haitian, Ecuadorian, Colombian and Chinese migrants.
After crossing the Darien, the migrants board buses that take them to Costa Rica to continue their journey.
Source: With information from AFP
