Panama City (EFE).- More than 100,000 irregular migrants have crossed the Darién jungle so far this year, a historic figure that represents a “worrying increase” by six-fold that of the same period in 2022, the Panamanian government warned on Thursday. UN Refugee Agency (Acnur) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
“According to the figures of the Panamanian authorities, the record number of more than 100,000 people has been reached crossing the Darién, six times more than those who arrived in the same period of 2022,” UNHCR and IOM said in a statement. set.
Both organizations stressed that the Panamanian authorities have indicated that if this rate of arrivals to the country through the jungle, which is the natural border between Panama and Colombia, is maintained, 2023 “could close with the crossing of more than 400,000 people” traveling irregularly to North America.
“Panama is facing one of the most challenging mixed movement crises in the last decade, as part of an unprecedented displacement across the Americas,” UNHCR and IOM said.
Migrants from all over the world
The Ombudsman of Panama, Eduardo Leblanc, told EFE on Wednesday that from January 1 to that day almost 100,000 people had crossed the jungle. In all of 2022 there were 248,284, and the previous year 133,726, both historical figures at the time.
The UNHCR and the IOM indicated that, according to the statistics of the National Migration Service (SNM) of Panama at the end of last March, the main nationalities of travelers crossing the Darién were “citizens of Venezuela (30,250), Haiti (23,640), Ecuador (14,327), in addition to people from China (3,855), India (2,543) and the children of Haitians born in Chile (2,499) and Brazil (2,072)”.
Other nationalities of irregular migrants traversing the jungle “include people from Colombia, Afghanistan, Cameroon, Somalia and Peru, among others,” the joint statement said.
They leave their countries for economic reasons and insecurity
The UNHCR and the IOM indicated that their most recent monthly monitoring reports “report that people leave their country of origin frequently for economic reasons, including lack of access to employment.”
“More than half of people also report having fled their countries due to general levels of insecurity or threats, as well as specific attacks against them and their family members.”
On the other hand, three quarters of the people had suffered an injury or accident on the trip, and one third some kind of mistreatment or abuse, specifically during the crossing of the Darién jungle,” the joint statement said.
According to testimonies recently given to EFE by migrants at the reception stations located in the Panamanian province of Darién, these travelers face the onslaught of the jungle, such as wild animals or swollen rivers, and also abuse, including sexual, or assaults by armed groups. Many said they had seen the corpses of people along the way.
The levels of violence
“The dangers and levels of violence faced by people who cross the Darién are highly worrying,” which is why “it is urgent to work on a protection-based regional solution to respond to this unprecedented humanitarian crisis in the Americas.” said Philippa Candler, representative of the UNHCR Multi-Country Office in Panama.
Giuseppe Loprete, Head of the Global Administrative Center and IOM Panama Mission, added that “it is worrying that people who are thinking of making this journey (through the jungle) are not aware of the dangers associated with this route.”
“In compliance with the Los Angeles Declaration on Migration and Protection, UNHCR and IOM will continue to support national, regional, and hemispheric efforts to strengthen the necessary frameworks for international protection and access to fair and efficient asylum procedures, as well as to promote the conditions for a safe, orderly, humane and regular migration”, both organizations added in their statement.