Photo credit: Reuters
Migrant crossings through the dangerous Darien Gap that connects Panama to Colombia are down by over a third in the year’s first nine monts, according to a Panamanian border official. Alexis de Gracia, head of the National Border Service’s eastern brigade ascribed the decrease to heightened security measures by the new government.
VOA reports that between February and September 25, 259,712 migrants arrived in Panama through the Darien, a 35% decrease compared with the same period in 2023.
Authorities in Panama revealed the drop was due to stricter security measures implemented by the government of President Jose Raul Mulino since he took office on July 1. The new government closed some of the routes through the jungle passage and increased deportations with US support.
The data came nearly four months after US President Joe Biden instituted a broad asylum ban on migrants caught illegally crossing the US-Mexico border. Last year, a record 520,000 migrants, most of them Venezuelans, crossed the Darien in search of better opportunities in the north.
In July, Mulino’s first month in office, 20,519 migrants crossed the Darien, down 34% from June and less than half of te number of migrants who crossed in the same month last year.
In August, there were 19% fewer crossings compared with the previous month and five times fewer compared with the same month in 2023, according to official data.
However, some analysts are skeptical the government’s measures will succeed in the medium term without addressing the root cause of migration. Others fear the measures could make travel even more dangerous for migrants.
De Gracia said “there is the possibility that they use other routes.”
