About 87 390 irregular migrants they crossed the insecure jungle of the Darien, the natural border between Panama and Colombia, during the months of January, February and March 2023; the figure is seven times higher than that of the first quarter of 2022.
According to a report released this Saturday by the National Migration Service (SNM), the total number of migrants that have entered Panama so far this year far exceeds the figure of 13,796 registered in the same period of 2022, according to a report from efe.
In recent days, the tour of the Office of Humanitarian Affairs culminated with a visit to Darién, where the head of the office, Denis Meléndez, and a team, presented the humanitarian procedures carried out by the SNM and discussed the participation of the institution in the #HivePlan. pic.twitter.com/Pl5p3e35bC
— Panama Migration (@migrationpanama) April 1, 2023
By nationality, migrants from Venezuela predominate, with a total of 30,250 as of March 31, followed by Haiti with 23,640, Ecuador with 14,227, China (3,855), India (2,543), Chile (2,499), Colombia (2,230 ), Brazil (2072), Afghanistan (926), Cameroon (532), Somalia (444) and Peru (400).
March, for its part, was the month that closed this year with the highest number of migrants, 38,099, while February totaled 24,657 and January 24,634, the Spanish source points out.
The main arrivals of migrants this month were Venezuelans, with 28,816, Haitians (6,896), Ecuador (2,772), India (913), Colombia (1,260), the Dominican Republic (84) and Cuba (220), while 5,138 arrived from other countries, according to the SNM report.
Of those who crossed the Darién jungle in March, 30,929 were adults and 7,170 minors.
Panamanian authorities and the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) have warned and expressed concern about the growing number of minors arriving in Panama through the Darién jungle, many accompanied by their families, but also alone.
UNICEF warned in a statement this week that more than 9,700 children and adolescents crossed the Darién jungle in January and February 2023, a record number seven times higher than those registered in the same period of the previous year.
This figure, according to Unicef, “is the highest that has been recorded in a period of two months since these records were kept” and indicates that in the same period of the previous year less than 1,400 were recorded by the Panamanian authorities.
In addition, UNICEF warned that the number of unaccompanied or separated minors continues to grow and, based on the first two months of 2023, estimates that “an average of 5 children per day arrive alone in Panama or at least 200” in what goes this year, while in 2022 in the same period “less than 40” were registered.
Unicef considers that separated or unaccompanied children are “particularly vulnerable to violence, abuse and exploitation”.
The Darién Jungle, once again at the center of the migratory wave
Panama is the entrance to Central America from the south of the American continent and serves as a passage for thousands of irregular migrants from countries around the world who travel by land to the United States.
The growing trend of this migratory flow has led to an estimate of around 400,000 people who will cross the Darien jungle this year on their journey north, almost double the more than 248,000 who did in 2022.
With information from Efe.
