Panama’s President José Raúl Mulino announced that U.S.-funded deportation flights will begin on Tuesday, August 20, for migrants intercepted at the Darién Gap, the busy route between the country and Colombia.
Mulino told Univision Noticias that this was the case He “feels it in his heart” and admits that many people are “fleeing” because the “crisis in Venezuela is suffocating them”.
“Most of them come from Venezuela. It is a sad situation because they are first and foremost human beings.” Families are being torn apart. There are children aged five or six whose parents died on the journey and who are now in Panamanian shelters. We don’t know who they are or what their names are,” he added.
Mulino has campaigned hard to stop migration through the Darién Pass, a dangerous jungle trail that hundreds of thousands of people have used to travel north in recent years. Last year, over half a million people crossed this border, more than half of whom were Venezuelans.
After taking office in early July, the Mulino government implemented a series of measures, including the installation of barbed wire along various paths along the route. Jorge Gobea, director general of the National Border Guard, said the measure consists of five paths designed to guide migrants into a “humanitarian corridor” and includes a length of almost 5 kilometers of barbed wire.
“We have closed more than five clandestine routes used by organized crime to mobilize migrants from Colombia to Panama. The intention is to channel this flow, not to interrupt it, but to direct it along a single route, he said.
The country’s national border guard reported at the end of July that 11,363 migrants had crossed the border since the first day of the month, about 9,000 fewer than in the same period last year. In total, more than 216,000 people have crossed the border so far. And it is expected that the numbers will continue to fall due to the large number of flights, not only because so many people are effectively being deported, but also because this creates a deterrent effect.
Washington has pledged $6 million to repatriate migrants from the Central American country in the hope of reducing illegal border crossings at its southern border. The agreement also provides for This includes U.S. support to Panama with equipment, transportation and logistics for foreign nationals discovered in migration flows that violate Panama’s immigration laws. Mulino said earlier this month that the flights would bring the migrants back to Colombia.
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