More than 210,000 irregular migrants have passed through Panama this year on their way to the US and who arrived in the country after crossing the dangerous Darién jungle, the natural border with Colombia. More than 70% of them are Venezuelans, according to official Panamanian data
More than 4,000 irregular Venezuelan migrants have voluntarily returned to their country from Panama in recent weeks, thanks mainly to donations from churches and individuals, since travelers must pay for airfare, authorities said Wednesday.
“Through 24 ‘humanitarian’ flights, more than 4,000 (Venezuelan migrants) have left Panama who have been voluntarily returned to their homes, and even so we had almost 1,000 people in the Veranillo shelter yesterday (Tuesday),” in the Panamanian capital, said the director of the National Migration Service (SNM), Samira Gozaine.
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This refuge, a shed without facilities, was enabled by the Venezuelan Embassy to welcome the nationals who gave up their goal of entering the United States after that country announced, on October 12, a new immigration policy for Venezuelans who left virtually no chance to the tens of thousands of them walking toward North America.
Thus, Venezuelan migrants who had already arrived in Mexico, the southern border of the United States, or who were in transit through Central America, are returning to Panama, many thinking that from this country they can travel to Venezuela for free, which is “false.” », as the Panamanian authorities have insisted.
“On flights I think more than 1 million dollars has been spent among people who pay for their own flights. I think it should be noted that there have been many donors (…) Venezuelans and many Panamanians. The Adventist Church has been helping us, the Catholic, too,” Gozaine told local network TVN.
In that sense, the director of Migration revealed that the Panamanian Foreign Ministry “has been intervening so that Venezuela returns its citizens at no cost, on state airlines, allowing them to go with their own airlines to Venezuela.”
More than 210,000 irregular migrants have passed through Panama this year on their way to the US and who arrived in the country after crossing the dangerous Darién jungle, the natural border with Colombia. More than 70% of them are Venezuelans, according to official Panamanian data.
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