Migrant flow overwhelming Panama facilities

The director of the National Migration Service, Samira Gozaine, described the current situation with the large number of migrants, especially from Venezuela, who are entering through the Darién jungle in their eagerness to get to United States.

On Sunday the entry of more than 4,000 migrants was registered, half of these, to Canal Membrillo and the other through Bajo Chiquito, of these it is estimated that 80% are Venezuelans, said Gozaine.

For Panama, the panorama is difficult she said , since, although it is the only country that is providing humanitarian aid, it is almost running out of resources.

Regarding the status of refugees or voluntary return, Gozaine stressed that Panama does not have the resources to do so and “they cry out for economic assistance to the United States,  as they do with other countries” for this purpose.

Nor does it have the logistical capacity to face this, however, negotiations are being carried out with the charge d’affaires of the Embassy of Venezuela, to see if they can assume the costs of the voluntary return of their thousands of citizens.

She emphasized that the measure that the United States has adopted, of not allowing the entry of these people irregularly, is something that Panama had been “claiming” through the Foreign Ministry.

She said that the crisis that other countries have not assumed is already costing Panama more than $50 million. So far this year, more than 190,000 people have passed through the province of Darién.

Gozaine is aware that with the transit of these people, the nature of Darien is suffering, there is garbage contamination and the residents of the indigenous areas are complaining that people relieve themselves in the rivers they use to drink.

“There is a price that Panama is paying for this humanitarian attention and what we are asking is that the world turns its eyes towards Panama,” she emphasized.