Migration through Darien Gap increases, led by Venezuelans after election

PANAMA CITY (AP):

The number of migrants crossing the Darien Gap — a rugged jungle passage between Colombia and Panama — increased sharply in September, according to Panamanian government data, and a human-rights organisation says there’s less capacity to assist migrants.

Venezuelans have led mass migration through the Darien since 2022, and make up much of the increase since that country’s recent controversial presidential election.

“The crackdown in the wake of the July 28, 2024 elections in Venezuela has led to an increase in immigration,” Refugees International said in a report published on Friday. The report was based on dozens of interviews with migrants at reception stations in Panama and Costa Rica.

More than half a million migrants, a record number, crossed the Darien in 2023. More than 65 per cent of them were Venezuelan. Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino, who took office on July 1, promised to curb migration by closing several access points.

He also said he would implement a repatriation programme with the help of the United States, which has so far added flights to Colombia, Ecuador, and India. The US government agreed to pay for deportation flights for those migrants deemed inadmissible.

The plan has not been applied to Venezuelan migrants because Panama, like neighbouring Costa Rica, suspended its relations with Caracas after refusing to recognise the electoral victory claimed by Nicolás Maduro. Flights between the two nations are paralysed.

As of October 7, the number of migrants who had crossed through the Darien this year was 277,939, or 36 per cent less than the same period in 2023, according to the Panamanian Ministry of Security. However, the same data showed a sharp increase in September, compared to August.

Records show that 25,111 migrants crossed last month, 51 per cent more than in August, with more than 80 per cent of them Venezuelans. The numbers also included Colombians, Ecuadorians, Chinese and dozens of other nationalities.

“The (migratory) measures and the rhetoric from the Panamanian government could have temporarily discouraged migration, but not in the long term,” said the organisation.

“When they exit Darien, migrants encounter less humanitarian aid in Panama,” the report said. “For those who aren’t Venezuelan, they encounter the threat of deportation.”

Refugees International said this is due in part to the suspension of Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in early March by the previous Panamanian administration. The organisation provided humanitarian aid to migrants, but was suspended because of an expired agreement with the country’s Ministry of Health.

MSF had suggested that the suspension was in retaliation for multiple accusations made against Panamanian authorities for not addressing unprecedented rates of sexual violence in the Darien during the first months of 2024, according to the report.

MSF informed the AP that it has resumed its activities since last week at the Lajas Blancas reception station after Panamanian authorities approved a three-month medical intervention. MSF said that from January 2023 to February 2024 it provided more than 72,700 migrants with medical care.