Panama’s Migration Policy Shift: Impact from Darien Jungle to US Border

José Raúl Mulino – The newly elected President announced that he is considering closing the migration route. It is the busiest route, with more than 500,000 people using it last year.

This is something new from the Government of Panama, before this statement Panama has in the past always helped migrants by sending speedy buses to their territory so they could continue their journey north.

Experts reacting to Mulino’s move said we must wait and see how it will be implemented. They said that with very less government and staff it is difficult to reduce or block the chain of migration from the area.

After his victory in the election with a vote of 34% Mulino said, “Panama and our Darien are not a transit route. It is our border,”

As promised during his campaign, the 64-year-old lawyer and former security minister affirmed his commitment to halt what he referred to as “the Darien odyssey, that does not have a reason to exist.”

The migratory route through the narrow isthmus has increased rapidly in recent years.

This is what is happening at Colombia’s support, reports suggest, making it possible for migrants to be smuggled in with the help of organized crime.

Migrants are using this dangerous, land route for hundreds of thousands of people.

After the Visa restrictions from US government and Mexico government migrants are using land and channels as illegal routes to leave the country.

The routes they are using illegally are not safe, these are risky. But people accept this challenge and start traveling by taking risks. There have been many crime cases using these methods, such as sexual assault, murder, manslaughter, robbery, trying to drown in rivers, etc.

By using the Darien route around 147,000 migrants reached to Panama.

Although Mulino said he would close this route, we remind you that previous attempts to close routes resulted in migrants finding and choosing some of the riskier routes to travel.

The chief of mission in Panama for the U.N.’s International Organization for Immigration Giuseppe Loprete said, “People migrate for many reasons and frequently don’t have safe, orderly, and legal ways to do it,” When the legal routes are not accessible, migrants run the risk of turning to criminal networks, traffickers and dangerous routes, tricked by disinformation.”

He further said that UN  representatives in Panama will meet the Mulino team.

Mulino’s plan to close down roots worked but it would not remain effective for long as the migrants would soon find other routes. That path can also be more dangerous and risky.