More than 500,000 migrants crossed the dangerous Darien jungle on their way to North America so far in 2023, a historical record of individuals who crossed this natural border between Panama and Colombia, most of them Venezuelans, official sources informed EFE.
Of the 501,297 migrants who have crossed the well-known Darién Gap, the Venezuelan nationality is “the one with the highest income with 320,465 (…) followed by the Ecuadorian with 54,757 migrants”, revealed the Panamanian authorities.
With approximately an average of more than a thousand daily arrivals, this new record figure leaves behind the 248,000 in 2022 and the 133,000 in 2021.
A historic figure despite the numerous obstacles that migrants must face when crossing the jungle, such as danger of attacks by wild animals, snake bites, the flooding of rivers due to torrential rains or robberies and rapes.
The head of the regional delegation of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) for Mexico and Central America, Olivier Dubois, explained to several international media, that this situation demands “an immediate humanitarian assistance response”, as well as a coordinated reaction between the countries of origin, transit and destination together with humanitarian organizations.
Dubois warned that behind this “gross number” of migrant entry, We must pay attention that many of them are “girls, boys and adolescents who arrive dehydrated after days without eating food, sick, in need of physical and mental health care, but also with specific protection needs, especially if they were victims of sexual violence, extortion, kidnappings” and other crimes.
“We must remember that behind each figure there are individuals with their own stories, people who decided to emigrate for different reasons, including violence, and each one must be treated with dignity,” said the regional head of the ICRC.
In the second week of November, The Panamanian authorities had already located in more than 468,000 migrants who had arrived in the country this year through the Darién, which connects the south of the continent with Central America.
The Government accuses the countries of South America, especially neighboring Colombia, of turning their backs on the migration problem. in whose management the Central American country has invested close to 70 million dollars in recent years, according to official data.
Panama registers migrants upon arrival in indigenous populations at the exit of the jungle or in the immigration reception centers where they are given shelter, food and health care, and then coordinate the departure by bus to Costa Rica, a trip that they must pay for themselves.
For years Panama applies this controlled flow operation, which consists of hosting irregular migrants in stations installed both on the southern border (Darién) and on the northern one, in Los Planes de Gualaca, near Costa Rica.
In these seasons The Panamanian authorities put them on buses that the travelers themselves must pay for. and that, until now, they were left at the border of Paso Canoas. However, in October Panama and Costa Rica activated a “humanitarian corridor” for the direct transfer of migrants to Costa Rican territory.
2023-12-07 04:11:27
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