The number of migrants trying to reach the United States through the Darien Forest between Panama and Colombia has tripled in recent weeks, despite warnings from Washington to deny them entry to the country.
“The flow of migrants increased in the month of August, and the increase is very significant,” Panamanian Security Minister Juan Manuel Pino told AFP during a tour with journalists across the border area with Colombia.
According to Panama’s Department of Immigration, as of August 17, nearly 300,000 people, a fifth of whom are minors, will cross the Darien River in 2023.
This number crushes the record for the entire previous year, when 248,000 immigrants crossed the Panamanian jungle in search of the “American Dream”.
On the 17 days of August, more than 42,000 people made the journey, a record nearly three times as many as the nearly 13,400 people who crossed this route in the same number of days in June, and more than 60% more than the 27,000 in the same period in July.
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At this rate, Panamanian authorities estimate that by the end of the year some 400,000 migrants will have crossed the Darien River.
The natural boundary of the Darien River, with a length of 266 km and an area of 575,000 hectares, has become a corridor for immigrants who, from South America, try to reach the United States by traveling through Central America and Mexico.
Aliens cross the jungle despite being exposed to dangers such as wild animals, mighty rivers, and criminal gangs that extort them.
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The majority are Venezuelans (over 170,000), Ecuadoreans (40,000), and Haitians (over 34,000), although there are Asians, mainly from China, and Africans, especially from Cameroon.
“It is an experience that I do not wish anyone to go through, but the time has come to do it,” Alejandro Velazco told AFP, “to give a better future to my family, especially my daughter, and that is why I am here fighting for her.” A 25-year-old Venezuelan, after crossing the jungle.
In addition, the number of migrants killed in Panama has increased from 62 in 2022 to 71 so far this year, according to official figures. However, underreporting is expected.
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“The hardest thing is to climb the mountain and go down, you have to be very careful, I have a little bent knee, I don’t recommend it to anyone,” Digny Delgado, another 27-year-old Venezuelan who crossed Darien, told AFP with another group of compatriots.
“There you go to pay (the wolves) and they advise and instruct you,” he adds, “but even if they paid me,” I would do it again.
The situation forced the Panamanian government to set up many shelters across the country, with the support of international organizations.
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This year the International Committee of the Red Cross even handed over to the authorities a hundred places for migrants in a town cemetery near the forest.
However, Minister Pino emphasized that South American countries are not cooperating.
“For the pandemic, we agreed on the amount of migrant flow, only 400 to 500 people travel a day, now that contact with the countries of the south has been cut off and there is no will to fix that,” Pino declared.
Migrants consider the United States their main destination, despite the fact that the North American country has already warned that it will not allow entry to those who arrive in Panama irregularly.
“Not only are they illegally arriving and transiting the United States, it is actually crossing the border into Panama that denies them” various immigration permits, Luis Miranda, deputy under secretary for communications at the Department of Homeland Security, said Thursday. .
On May 12, US President Joe Biden’s government lifted a health rule that allowed banning all immigrants who arrived without the necessary documents to enter the country.
Meanwhile, it implemented new rules for entry through appointments through the mobile app or through procedures in transit countries.
Additionally, Washington has had a rule in place since May that allows for expulsion with a 5-year ban on re-entry and possible trial.
Since then, the United States has already deported more than 145,000 people.
“I want to make clear that we are continuing to enforce the rule that we announced in May, with consequences for those who do not have a legal basis to remain in the United States,” Miranda recalled.
said Marta Youth, deputy assistant secretary for the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration.
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