Photo: Carlos Lemos /ARCHIVE / EFE
By: EFE Published 08 Sep 2023, 22:36 pm EDT
Panama announced on Friday that it will take new measures to face the migratory crisis caused by the arrival of thousands of undocumented immigrants from Colombia through the Darién, which has pushed the country’s capacities “to the limit.”
Among the new measures are increase deportations and move checkpoints at which travelers arrive, to reduce the impact of the unstoppable flow of immigrants in transit to the United States in the small communities of the south of the country.
The “first” of these administrative measures in force “as of this announcement, is the protection of the host towns, since we are going to remove the checkpoints and migratory assistance from the same communities of Bajo Chiquito and Canaán Membrillo in order to to mitigate the health and security impact,” said the director of the National Migration Service of Panama, Samira Gozaine.
They are going to “build spaces next to these places of reception where we can integrate and have content for migrants, (so) that they do not affect the daily life of all the people in the communities,” the first towns that migrants arrive after crossing the jungle through which they access from neighboring Colombia.
This first package of measures also includes reinforcing “deportations and expulsions of irregular citizens with criminal records, through charter flight contracts,” according to Gozaine.
From last April to date, Panama has deported 452 people, a small group compared to the more than 350,000 irregular migrants who have crossed the dangerous border jungle with Colombia.
“We would like if 3,000 people come in, we would deport 3,000, but that is impossible,” Gozaine said.
Immigration officials will be able to detect people with criminal records by taking biometric data at immigration stations in Darién, a measure that Panama already implements along with offering medical and food assistance, in a unique operation on the continent in which it has invested almost $70 million dollars in recent years, according to official data.
They will tighten immigration controls at airports
According to Gozaine, airports are being used by criminal groups to move immigrants, increasing the price of this transfer by avoiding the Darién jungle.
That is why Panama is going to “adjust the operational measures at formal checkpoints for all those people who, according to security profiles, use airports and those formal checkpoints to remain illegally in the country,” Gozaine explained.
This includes “reducing the tourism period from 90 days to 15 days,” and if that period is exceeded, “they will have to pay fines,” Gozaine said.
This measure “is not for all people or for all nationalities”, only for those who fit the profile after interviews with the airport authorities, he added.
Arrival of hundreds of thousands of migrants generates tensions
From January 1 to September 7, at least 350,841 migrants arrived at the Darién immigration stations on their way to North America. The majority are Venezuelans, followed by Ecuadorians and Haitians, according to official information.
These historic figures exceed the total number of travelers who crossed that jungle fraught with dangers, even fatalities, in 2022 (248,000), and far behind the 133,000 of 2021.
The current migratory flow has exceeded the capacities not only of the migratory stations but also of the international organizations that are in Darién.
“We are at the limit of our capabilities,” said the Panamanian Security Minister, Juan Manuel Pino, who once again complained that the countries of the south of the continent “have not paid due attention” to this crisis.
Panama and Costa Rica decided to unite “in one voice” and advocate for “better administration” of migratory flows, a vision that collides with Colombia’s vision of free transitas officials from the two Central American countries have pointed out.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro said on Thursday that in order to solve the humanitarian crisis on the Darién migration route, it is necessary to “economically unblock Venezuela.”
Keep reading:
– Panama prepares measures to contain the avalanche of migrants crossing the Darién jungle
– Doctors Without Borders cannot cope with the arrival of more than 50,000 immigrants to Panama
– The United States granted $16 million for humanitarian assistance due to the immigration crisis