Migrant Crossings Through Panama Fall By 42% In 2024
Date
1/2/2025 11:08:30 PM
(MENAFN- Newsroom Panama)
More than 300,000 migrants crossed the dangerous Darien jungle separating Panama from Colombia last year on their way to the United States, a reduction of almost half the crossings compared to the record for 2023, immigration authorities in the Central American country reported on Thursday.
The decline is attributed in part to stricter measures put in place by President José Raúl Mulino, who took office on July 1, including barbed wire closures of some stretches of the Darién until repatriation flights and fines for those who cross illegally.
Last year, 302,203 migrants crossed the Darien Gap, 42% less than the 520,085 who did so in 2023 , according to official figures from the National Migration Service. 69% of them were Venezuelans.
In recent years, Panama has become a major transit route for thousands of migrants seeking to reach the United States. The situation has been driven, in part, by a sharp increase in Venezuelans fleeing the prolonged economic and social collapse of the once-prosperous oil nation.
“These Darien routes were controlled because there were several, and today we work every day to ensure that illegal migration does not reach Panama City or the rest of the country,” Mulino said in a speech before the National Assembly.
The president added that, so far, 1,548 migrants have been repatriated by air with the support of the United States.
The 209,000 Venezuelans who crossed the Darien in 2024 were allowed to continue their journey north because Panama and Venezuela have suspended direct flights.
Despite the reduction in migrant crossings, analysts believe that the measures implemented by Panama are unlikely to be successful in the medium term because they do not combat the root causes of migration and, on the contrary, could make travel even more dangerous.
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