Panama began repatriating undocumented migrants on US-funded flights on Tuesday.

This move came less than two months after José Raúl Mulino was sworn in as President of Panama.

Mr Mulino campaigned on a promise to “close” the Darién Gap, the dangerous stretch of jungle through which more than half a million migrants crossed last year on their way north from South America.

The Biden administration said it had agreed to pay for the flights as part of its efforts to curb irregular migration.

A group of 29 Colombians with criminal records were the first to be repatriated on Tuesday.

Under an agreement signed jointly by Panama’s foreign minister and US Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, the US has committed to providing Panama with $6 million (£4.6 million) in equipment, transport and logistics to “remove foreign nationals who have no legal basis to remain in Panama”.

Ahead of the presidential election in November, immigration is a hot topic in the United States, and the flow of migrants arriving at the Mexican border is being closely watched.

The agreement with Panama aims to reduce the number of people who make it to the US border by stopping them further south.

The Darién Gap, a jungle area that stretches across Colombia and Panama, is a natural bottleneck for those traveling from South to North America.

In 2023, an estimated 520,000 people made the dangerous journey on foot, many of them paying gangs to exploit the crossing.

President Mulino, who has promised to reduce the number of migrants passing through Panama, described their situation as “sad.”

“Most of them are from Venezuela,” he explained. “They are people… they are families torn apart, children of five or six years old whose parents died on the crossing. We don’t even know who they are or what their names are.”

The president had previously stated that the flights would first take the migrants to Colombia, the country from which they entered Panama.

It is still unclear whether flights will be organized from Colombia to repatriate them to their home countries.

According to Panamanian government data, Venezuelans make up the largest proportion of migrants crossing the Darién Gap, followed by Colombians, Ecuadorians and Haitians.

There are widespread concerns in the region that the influx of people from Venezuela could increase in the coming months if the political crisis triggered by the announcement of the disputed election results is not resolved.

In the run-up to the election, polls had indicated that a large number of Venezuelans would plan to emigrate if President Nicolás Maduro won the election.

Tensions have been high since he was declared the winner by the government-dominated National Electoral Council, while the result was rejected as fraudulent by the opposition and questioned by the US, the EU and numerous Latin American countries.

Panama’s President Mulino offered Maduro “safe passage” earlier this month so that the Venezuelan president could travel to a third country. However, Maduro rejected his offer and warned his Panamanian counterpart not to “mess with” Venezuela.