Panama’s President-elect has vowed to shut down Darien jungle, a migrant route used by over 500,000 people last year.
Daily Mail reports that Panama had been in the practice of transporting the migrants across its territory. They would then continue their journey north.
The migrant route grew in recent years with the help of organized crime in Colombia. It was made an affordable, but dangerous, route for thousands of migrants who came in their hundreds of thousands.
It grew as countries like Mexico imposed visa restrictions on various nationalities in an attempt to stop migrants flying into the country just to continue on to the US border.
However, masses of people surmounted the challenge by setting out on foot through the jungle. It remains a risky route. But migrants would not mind being sexually assaulted, death or drowning to reach their goals.
147,000 migrants have entered Panama through Darien this year.
