Some 243,681 migrants have crossed the dangerous jungle of the Darienthe natural border between Colombia and Panama, so far this year on its way to North America, according to official figures released this Friday by the Panamanian Foreign Ministry.
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This figure, with less than two weeks left to close 2022, It is historic and leaves far behind that of 133,726 passers-by who crossed the Darién in 2021the 8,594 in 2020 – when the borders were closed due to the covid pandemic – and 30,055 in 2016, during the Cuban migrant crisis.
The migratory movement through the Darién decreased abruptly after the US Government announced last October a new policy according to which all Venezuelans who enter that country having crossed the border of Mexico and Panama irregularly, will be expelled to Mexican territory.
Besides, those expelled will be excluded from the program that will give legal status in the United States for two years to 24,000 Venezuelans who arrive by plane and with sponsors.
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In October, the month with the highest traffic according to official Panamanian figures, 59,773 migrants crossed, and in November, after the US decision, 16,632 passers-by.
The Darien jungle will not be a regular route
“Migration will never change and nobody will be able to stop it”said this Friday the Panamanian foreign minister, Janaina Tewaney, during a meeting with the local and foreign press.
The important thing, he added, “is that it be organized, planned, respect the minimum rights of people, that it be understood that it is a human drama and that routes like the Darién are not used.”
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“That jungle is not a route, it is more a punishment for the human being,” said the minister of foreign affairs.
The dangerous jungle of the Darien has been used for decades by people from all over the world who travel irregularly to the United States, despite the serious dangers that it entails due to its wild environment and the presence of organized crime groups.
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The authorities of Panama, a country that registers the number of migrants and offers temporary shelters, have repeatedly requested help from the international community to tackle the migration problem and confront it as a regional phenomenon.
Panama will not regularize the jungle route of the Darién
The government of Panama discarded this Friday regularize the step of illegal migrants through the inhospitable jungle of the Darien.
The government makes this decision despite the more than 240,000 people who crossed this border point with Colombia on their way to the United States.
Most of this year’s figures are due to the Venezuelan exodus, with 149,826 people from this country, followed by Ecuadorians, 27,921, Haitians, 20,000, and Cubans, 5,821, according to the figures updated until this Friday.
“The Darien jungle is not going to be a regular route,” Panamanian Foreign Minister Janaina Tewaney said during a meeting with journalists.
Your statements are made after meeting this week in Washington with Secretary of State American, Antony Blinken, to analyze possible measures to stop the record number of people crossing the dangerous jungle.
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“We are not going to ponder any route through the Darién, quite the contrary, the measures that are going to be carried out are to protect the Darién jungle, not to normalize a path that should not be normalized”Tewaney noted.
Panama, Colombia and Costa Rica, with the support of the United States, seek to establish possible migratory routes to facilitate safe and regular transit for migrants.
The dangerous route that thousands of migrants travel
We are not going to ponder any route through the Darién, quite the contrary
The jungle border of Panama and Colombia, 266 km, se has become a corridor for irregular migrants who, coming from South America, try to cross Central America to the United States.
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In this 575,000-hectare virgin jungle, travelers face multiple dangers, such as wild animals, including poisonous snakes, rushing rivers, and criminal groups.
Santiago Andrés Venera Salazar*
INTERNATIONAL WRITING
With information from agencies
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