The humanitarian emergency represented by the massive flow of migrants through the inhospitable Darién jungle that marks the Colombian-Panamanian border is not perceived in Panama City, nor has it been one of the important topics in the electoral debate of the Central American country, which attends this Sunday to the polls. And yet, the discourse against immigration has found a way to sneak into the presidential race, in the mouth, among others, of the poll favorite, former Security Minister José Raúl Mulino, who replaced the disqualified former president Ricardo Martinelli.
“We are going to close Darién and we are going to repatriate all these people accordingly,” he said in statements reported by the Efe agency. Mulino, considered a champion of the heavy hand, assured that he would ask for support from the countries in the region involved in the migratory flow, such as Colombia and the United States, understanding that “Panama is not a transit country” and that many migrants are victims. of trafficking. In the basement of the polls, the independent Zulay Rodríguez has also echoed the idea of ”closing the border”, which other candidates, such as the anti-system candidate Ricardo Lombana and former president Martín Torrijos, have labeled as “unrealistic.”
That imaginary wall existed de facto for many years, but it is now breached. The dense jungle was once considered inaccessible territory, but the migratory flow has made that green wall porous. The number of people has broken all records. Never before had so many crossed the inhospitable Darien Gap. Only in the first four months of this year, 139,000 migrants have already headed north, mainly to the United States, according to records from the Panamanian National Immigration Service.
Passing through the dangerous routes that cross the jungle continues to break records. More than 130,000 migrants, mainly Haitians and Cubans, crossed in 2021. The number practically doubled to 250,000 in 2022, with an increase in Venezuelans and Ecuadorians. And more than half a million ventured out last year. On the Colombian side, the Clan del Golfo, the largest drug trafficking gang, acts as the dominant armed actor in the area. On the Panamanian side, migrants also face all kinds of humiliations, in an unstoppable humanitarian crisis, as various human rights organizations have documented.
The Panamanian authorities have chosen to favor the transfer of migrants from its southern border – once they have already crossed the jungle – to its northern border, rather than a reception or integration effort. “What the controlled flow policy does is de facto make migrants in Panama invisible,” says Caitlyn Yates, an anthropologist who has been researching the border crossing for years. “You can walk all over Panama City and you will never see the people who crossed the Darien,” she explains. That’s why it’s not an important issue for voters. With fleeting exceptions, the flow is not dammed in the capital. The migrants who cross the isthmus, for their part, look at the skyline of skyscrapers characteristic of the financial zone of Panama City from the windows of the buses coordinated by the Government that take them to Costa Rica to continue on their way.
Panama does “everything humanly possible” to care for the people who pass through the Darién, Eduardo Leblanc, the Panamanian ombudsman, clarifies in dialogue with EL PAÍS, who requests greater coordination with the Colombian authorities. The so-called controlled flow, he maintains, allows migrants to suffer less during the journey and not have to walk across the country. “It shortens the distance and is more respectful of human rights,” he adds. “Without a doubt it is a hostile place, controlled by irregulars who wander on both sides of the border,” he warns.
Venezuelans, Haitians, Ecuadorians and Colombians, but also people from other continents such as Asia and Africa, risk their lives on these trails where they are exposed to abuse by criminal groups, including sexual violence, and receive little protection or humanitarian aid, has warned, among other organizations, Human Rights Watch (HRW) in a series of reports. The Venezuelan diaspora, pushed by the long political, social and economic crisis in their country, is by far the nationality that makes the most dangerous crossing – 88,000 of the almost 140,000 people so far in 2024. According to Panamanian authorities, 20% are minors.
The Darién, once impregnable, is the horror on earth. The terrain is steep and slippery, and the rivers are mighty. Most of the routes, as HRW has corroborated with several field visits, follow trails that crown hills with heights of up to 1,800 meters. No one knows for sure how many have died along the way. “Colombia and Panama are not protecting or assisting hundreds of thousands of migrants and asylum seekers transiting through the Darien Gap. Nor are they adequately investigating the abuses committed against them,” the organization noted in a report presented a month ago, after almost 300 interviews. There it recommended that the Panamanian Government appoint a senior official or an advisor in charge of coordinating the response in Darién. Also modify the “controlled flow” strategy (also called “humanitarian flow”) to establish a clearly articulated plan that takes into account the needs of migrants and asylum seekers and guarantees their right to request asylum.
“Sadly, the high migratory flow through the Darién Gap is here to stay,” says Juan Pappier, deputy director of Human Rights Watch for the Americas. The next government of Panama, whatever it may be, he details, must take measures with the support of the international community to increase humanitarian assistance, prevent abuses and investigate criminal groups in the area. “Neither a ‘controlled flow’ policy, focused on migrants passing quickly through the country almost without being noticed in the capital, nor an attempt to ‘close’ the Darién are going to provide a sufficient response to this crisis that is occurring in Panamanian territory. ”, he concludes.
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