Given the alert from Doctors Without Borders (MSF) about the lack of state presence in the Darién jungle, the Government of Panama is working on a package of measures to mitigate the outbreak of migration in its territory. So far this year, more than 320,000 people have crossed the inhospitable jungle bordering Colombia, with the United States as the ultimate goal.
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“The Darién is a jungle, not a road”, under this motto the Government of Panama announced the launch of a campaign to address the delicate migration crisis in which the numbers are already reaching record levels.
According to reports delivered this Monday, August 28 by the Panamanian Ministry of Public Security, from January 1, 2023 to date, 320,098 irregular migrants bound for the United States have passed through the Darién jungle. Of that number, 190,889 are Venezuelans, 42,441 Ecuadorians, and 35,495 Haitians.
The figure so far this year far exceeds the 248,284 migrants who crossed the same border crossing in 2022 and is far from the 133,726 in 2021.
“The crisis has escalated, in 2016 we were talking about 20,000 in a year and it was already a crisis,” said the director of the National Migration Service, Samira Gozaine, who also pointed out that, although in April the United States and Colombia committed to work united against the smuggling networks that have facilitated the flow of migrants, the reality is that the exchange of information has been lacking, as well as joint actions to implement the measures.
For its part, the United Nations projected at the beginning of August that if the current rate of migration persists, up to 400,000 people could cross the gap before the end of the year.
And it is that MSF reports that the robberies, assaults and sexual violence at the hands of criminal gangs are just some of the humiliations that hundreds of migrants have to face when they undertake the trip.
“There is nothing humanitarian in continuing to allow this situation”
The route is considered one of the deadliest in the world. The numbers of crossings exceed the daily average of 700 migrants in 2022, which shows the need for immediate action, according to humanitarian organizations working in the area.
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Most migrants arrive in Panama with dermatological problems, muscle aches from the long hours of walking and the complex journey, gastrointestinal diseases from drinking water from the rivers, and one of the main problems they face is mental health difficulties caused by the violence they experience during their journey.
“We have had days with up to 3,000 migrants in a single point in recent weeks,” said José Lobo, MSF field coordinator. His testimony is proof of the overflow that exists in the region.
Gozaine also said on national television that “there is nothing humanitarian in continuing to allow this situation, but for us to be able to do something real, or at least a containment, we require that all nations get involved. Especially Colombia, which is where this problem is generated. serious of migrants”.
Factors such as economic insecurity, political turmoil, violence and climate change have prompted unprecedented numbers of people to leave their home countries, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
Most of these migrants have the southern border of the United States as their final destination, where they wait for the Joe Biden Administration to grant them asylum.
Over the course of this month, more than 50,000 people traversed the Darien Gap, exceeding previous years’ numbers per month. Migrants arrive mainly from Venezuela, but also from Ecuador and Haiti, as well as from other Latin American countries.
Also this Monday, the president of Costa Rica, Rodrigo Chaves, and that of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, held a meeting in which they discussed issues such as the regional migration crisis, tourism and coffee.
“Subjects have been touched on that seem neuralgic for the world and for the Americas and bilateral issues,” said the president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, who also added on the issue of migration that it is “a growing phenomenon on which we have to build a policy common Latin American”.
For his part, President Chaves stressed that Colombia and Costa Rica are “brotherly peoples” that share a maritime border and that they have “many similarities.”
With EFE, and local media
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