Record number: almost 80,000 migrants crossed the Darién jungle in 2023

Photo: Luis Acosta/AFP/Getty Images

So far this year, a record number of 78,585 migrants have crossed the dangerous Darien jungle on footthe natural border that divides Panama and Colombia, which is five times more than the figures registered in 2022, according to the Panamanian Ministry of Public Security alerted this Saturday.

With a week to go before the end of March, This month alone, they identified 29,294 migrants who crossed the Darien jungle from Colombiasurpassing the figures for February, with 24,657, the Minister of Public Security, Juan Manuel Pino, who visited this border region, reported in a statement and on social networks.

“As has been seen this year, more migrants are going to come, that is what you see to the south. We already have very high figures, where there is an entry of more than a thousand people daily,” said Pino, who toured the border area of ​​Cañas Blancas with other authorities.

2022 had already marked a record year in the arrival of migrants to Panama through the Darién jungle, with more than 248,000, which in turn was almost double the number identified in 2021. The Panamanian authorities estimate that this year 400,000 migrants could cross their territory, breaking all records.

And it is that if in the first three months of 2022 13,791 people had crossed the jungle, this year 78,585 already did so. In addition, in March of last year, 4,827 migrants crossed this border, while in this unfinished month almost 30,000 have already done so.

This situation underscores “the responsibility we have in security, we also have to see this issue from other perspectives and involve other authorities,” Pino said.

Human and environmental impact

On the one hand, the minister underscored the human drama of this crisis: “This is an inhospitable part of Panama where entire families go looking for a better future in the United States, with nationals from Venezuela, Haiti and Ecuador being the most frequent.”

But also highlighted the environmental impact on the jungle due to the massive flow of migrantswitnessing a negative change since his last visit to the place three months ago, with shocking images of mountains of garbage in that natural area.

The Vice President of Panama himself, José Gabriel Carrizo, highlighted this Saturday during the Ibero-American Summit in Santo Domingo the situation in the Darién National Park, a protected area that is nevertheless suffering the effect of the migration crisis.

“Thousands of people risk their lives every day, crossing this sanctuary of biodiversity, in a migratory flow that threatens to overwhelm us,” Carrizo remarked.

Thus, he added, “the international community is called upon to generate wills that, while safeguarding human existence, preserve this natural heritage for future generations.”

These migrants cross this jungle on foot for several days, one of the most dangerous border crossings in the world, where natural obstacles such as swollen rivers and wild animals are compounded by robberies at gunpoint and rape.

On this journey, migrants are stripping of the few belongings they carry with them, or they are robbed, leaving them with nothing, pieces of clothing and other objects that are left along the route, negatively impacting those natural places.

Also human excrement and the dead contaminate the waters of the riverslater making both the migrants who drink it and the indigenous communities of the region sick, who have suffered a drastic change in their way of life with this migratory exodus.

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