They report that more than 82 thousand migrants crossed the Darién in 2024, the majority of them Venezuelans

More than 82,000 migrants crossed the dangerous jungle of Dariennatural border between Panama and Colombia, so far this year, are predominantly Venezuelans, followed by Ecuadorians, as Panamanian immigration authorities reported this Saturday.

“More than 82 thousand people have already crossed the Darién jungle. They continue to be predominantly Venezuelans,” said the director of the National Immigration Service in a video message. Samira Gozaine.

In total, so far this year, 82,360 migrants have crossed the Darién, according to data from Panamanian authorities, which register them upon arrival at the first indigenous communities leaving the jungle.

These data collide with the 49,291 registered between January and February of last year, or with the 87,390 at the end of March. The increase has been progressive since 2021, reaching a record number of more than 520 thousand in 2023, double the previous year.

From these indigenous communities, migrants are transported across the river in canoes to government shelters, such as those in Lajas Blancas or San Vicente, in Darién itself.

The Darien Jungle is 5,000 square kilometers of rainforests, rugged mountains and rivers. (Juan Carlos Tomasi/MSF).

It is precisely in San Vicente where a week ago a dispute between migrants triggered an altercation and the fire of part of the center’s infrastructure, generating losses of more than 400 thousand dollars, according to official estimates.

A total of 45 migrants involved in the riots were detained and are already serving sentences in Panamanian prisons.

In these shelters, migrants take buses run by the Panamanian authorities, which have to finance themselves, to Costa Rica, in order to continue on their way to North America. This same Friday, according to the director of Immigration, they transported 2,600 people to the neighboring country.

Of these, he explained, “almost 2,100 were Venezuelans”, followed by Ecuadorians, then Chinese, among whom there is “an increase”, as well as Colombians and Haitians. Among those who arrived with criminal records, the majority are “gang members,” he noted.

“In this same period (January-March) 7 migrants wanted for crimes were detected, through biometric alerts”, highlighted Gozaine.

The director of the border security forces known as the National Border Service (Senafront), Jorge Gobea, detailed in another video message published on social media that the last few months have been very intense due to “bad weather in the Caribbean sector”. , an alternative “VIP” route by sea to avoid the jungle, where several deaths have occurred due to shipwrecks.

The Darién is a jungle that connects South America to Central America. It is located between the territories of Colombia and Panama. (Juan Carlos Tomasi/MSF).

“We maintain a team that continues to patrol the trails, the corridors, the beaches, especially the Caribbean-Pacific sector, to prevent Panamanians and foreigners from getting involved in human trafficking and harming these people who arrive in transit and who are trying to find a better life. ,” he said.

Therefore, he stressed, “it is up (…) first to provide them with security and, second, to identify all the criminal networks that seek to profit from this scourge”, since “each migrant who enters Panama illegally feeds organized crime, and is something we want to separate in Panamanian society.”

The Government of Panama insists that migration through the Darién is a for-profit organized crime “business” and, last year, according to data from the Panamanian Ministry of Security, around 820 million dollars were earned from the transfer of migrants through this jungle. .

Source: Elcomercio