The ambassador in charge of the United States in Colombia, Francisco Palmieri, advised Venezuelans seeking to cross the Darién Gap, on the border with Panama, that do not risk your life to reach the US, because from this week those who try to enter illegally are deported to Mexico.
“I spoke with Venezuelan migrants in Necoclí and left them an important message: learn about the new legal way to enter the United States. Do not risk your lives and those of your families. Venezuelans who try to enter illegally will be expelled to Mexico,” the diplomat said on Twitter.
Palmieri visited Necoclí this Saturday, in the department of Antioquia, where this week there were some 9,000 imprisoned migrants waiting to get a boat to take them to Acandí, in Chocó, to start their journey through the Darién.
The ambassador was in this town with the Deputy Minister of Multilateral Affairs of Colombia, Laura Gil, because, as he said, all countries have “the responsibility to attend to the regional migratory crisis”.
This week, the US government announced that from now on it will return Venezuelans who cross the southern border to Mexico, a measure with which it seeks to control migration.
(What explains the massive migration of Venezuelans to the US through Mexico).
Along with the announcement of the new reality on the border, The United States also created a new immigration relief program for Venezuelans with which they hope “disincentivize movement” migratory through different countries in the region, including Panama and Mexico.
The program, which is similar to a benefit that the US already gives to people from Ukraine, has a limit of 24,000 applicants, a much lower number compared to the number of Venezuelans who have been arrested crossing the border with Mexico. in recent months.
Only last August there were more than 25,000 arrests and in the last 11 months the figure rises to about 150,000, according to data from the Office of Customs and Border Protection.
Darien Gap.
AFP
The Colombian Ombudsman’s Office warned this week about the worsening of the humanitarian crisis that exists on the border with Panama, where there are currently some 9,000 migrants waiting to cross the Darien to North America.
This year “The migration crisis is much more serious than that registered last year” and that “the number of people in human mobility who have passed through Panama exceeds 150,000, compared to the 134,000 migrants in all of 2021”, added the agency.
(Conditions that will be placed on Venezuelans who want to come to the US).
While 4,415 migrants crossed the border in January of this year, 31,055 did so in August, which gives an idea of the increase in the number of people seeking to cross into Panama in order to continue their journey by land to the United States.
EFE
