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During the election campaign, the elected president of the PanamaJosé Raúl Mulino, promised to close the border of Darien Gap to stop the flow of migrants seeking to reach U.S. Is this proposal viable?
“We will close Darién and repatriate all these people accordingly, respecting human rights,” he said Mulino in April, during an election trip to Las Mañanitas, a suburb of Panama City.
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“The United States border was moved to Panama instead of Texas. Therefore, we have to do trilateral work [entre Estados Unidos, Colombia y Panamá] It is They have to understand that Panama is not a transit country for immigrants” he claimed.
O jungle of Darien It’s a border between Colombia It is Panama 266 kilometers long and 575 thousand hectares in area. Currently, it is the corridor most used by migrants from South America trying to cross the border between Mexico and the United States.
Last year alone, more than 520,000 people used the dangerous Darien, a great record. Of these, around 120 thousand were minors, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
While between January and February this year, more than 72 thousand people crossed the Dariena value that exceeds the 50 thousand in the same period of the previous year.
Nearly two-thirds of migrants crossing the Darien are Venezuelans, followed by Ecuadorians, Haitians, Colombians and Chinese. There are also Peruvians.
Officially, in 2022 there were 62 deaths of people trying to cross the Darien. As of 2023, at least 34 have died.
However, the government of Panama The exact number of dead due to the inaccessibility of the jungle, the lack of complaints or the abandonment of bodies, which are sometimes devoured by animals, reports the AFP agency.
Migrants take between three and six days to cross the Darienwhere they face many natural dangers, such as raging rivers, but also criminal gangs that rob people or demand payments to guide them on their route.
José Raúl Mulinothe president-elect Panama who will take power on July 1, never explained during the campaign how he plans to fulfill his promise to close the Darien. He did not say whether he will build a wall or militarize the border with Colombia.
However, during a radio interview on Thursday last week, Mulino I say that The idea of stopping the migratory flow is more philosophical than a physical obstacle.
“Because when we start deporting people here in an immediate deportation plan interest in sneaking in will decrease Panama“, he said. When the fourth plane loaded with migrants takes off, “I guarantee they will tell you what to do”. Panama It’s not attractive because they’re deporting you.”
For experts and some Colombian authorities, this is a difficult measure to comply with.
Adam Isacson, an analyst at the Washington Office for Latin America, told the AP agency that “without considering the risk of returning migrants to dangerous situations, In mathematical terms, I don’t know how they expect to deport migrants en masse.
“A daily plane, which would be extremely expensive, would only repatriate around 10% of the flow (between 1,000 and 1,200 people per day). The United States can only fly about 130 flights around the world per month,” Isacson said.
In Colombiathe mayor’s office Necoclímunicipality in the department of Antioquia, on the border with Panamareacted to the proposal Mulino and showed his “deep concern”.
Through a declaration, Necolí He said “such a decision could trigger a significant backlog of migrants in our territory.”
According to a report by the AP agency, almost 65 thousand migrants passed through Necoclí so far this year, which according to the city hall represents an increase of more than 20 thousand people compared to the same period of the previous year.
Fernanda Garcia, director of Migration Colombiahe told Voice of America that the president-elect Panama referred to the technological possibilities to have greater control of the border, since Talking about closure “is not possible physically, monetarily, economically or militarily” and could bring other effects that “are much more serious”.
Irene Cabrera, co-director of the Migration Observatory at the Externado de Colombia University. indicated to Voice of America that the border “is impossible” to close because there will always be different mechanisms that will make people “in one way or another find a way to cross an international border”.
While Diego Chaves-González, senior manager for Latin America and the Caribbean at the Migration Policy Institute (MPI), told Voice of America that closing the border is “very impractical” because “For each closed point, three new ones can appear, which are quieter and less bulky.”.
“Stopping migration in this way is something that in the experience that Latin America has, in the recent experience with pandemics, with the first migratory flows that occurred on the continent, we know the capabilities of openings, often official, that “Help to allow and facilitate migration”, he added in an interview with Voice of America.
“People migrate for many reasons and often do not have safe, orderly and legal ways to do so,” Giuseppe Loprete, head of the United Nations International Organization for Immigration mission in Panama, told AP. “W.When legal channels are not accessible, migrants are at risk of turning to criminal networkstraffickers and dangerous routes, deceived by misinformation”, he explained.
Loprete announced that representatives of the UN agency in Panama would meet with the Mulino as soon as its members are appointed to know the details of the president’s plans.
What will happen if the measure of Mulino It is efficient? The AP agency said that in this case it would be a partially effective action that could produce a notable, but probably temporary, impact. He recalled that visa restrictions imposed by the Mexicounder pressure from the United States, led migrants to seek the land route through Panama. Now, they will find other routes, such as the maritime route from Colombia to Panama, which would be similar. dangerous for the Darien.
Source: Elcomercio
I am Jack Morton and I work in 24 News Recorder. I mostly cover world news and I have also authored 24 news recorder. I find this work highly interesting and it allows me to keep up with current events happening around the world.
