400,000 migrants are predicted to cross Darien this year
So far this year, a record number of 78,585 migrants have crossed the dangerous Darién jungle on foot five times more than the figures registered in 2022, reports the Ministry of Security.
With a week to go before the end of March, only this month they identified 29,294 migrants who crossed the Darién jungle from Colombia, surpassing the February figures, of 24,657, Juan Manuel Pino the Minister of Security reported on social networks after a visit to the border region.
“We already have very high numbers, with an entry of more than a thousand people daily,” said Pino, who toured with other authorities the border area of Cañas Blancas.
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 represented almost double those identified in 2021. The Panamanian authorities estimate that this year they could cross its territory with 400,000 migrants, 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 point in Panama where entire families go looking for a better future towards the United States, nationals from Venezuela, Haiti, and Ecuador the most frequently”. He also highlighted “the environmental impact” on the jungle due to the massive flow of migrants, witnessing a negative change since his last visit to the place three months ago, with “shocking images” of mountains of garbage.
