RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – More than 10,000 migrants and refugees are stranded at the Colombian border trying to enter Panama through the dangerous Darien jungle, waiting for the governments of these countries to define actions to offer them safe passage, the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) denounced on Monday.
“The increase of migrants and refugees crossing through the dangerous Darien jungle is worrying,” explained the country’s NGO director Dominika Arseniuk.
According to data from the Panamanian Foreign Ministry, during the first three months of the year 7,150 migrants entered Panama irregularly, and of these 4,403 did so in March.
“Five out of every ten people who entered Panama this year did so in March. It is urgent that the authorities of Colombia and Panama find shared solutions to save lives,” Arseniuk explained to journalists.
Now, according to NRC information, there are some 10,000 people, mainly from Haiti, Cuba and several African countries, waiting at the Colombian border to gain access to the country.
Panamanian authorities warned of a significant and sudden increase in the arrival of irregular migrants through the Darien and on April 10th proposed to Colombia to implement an agreement to control this flow to prevent them from crowding in the towns along the border, as has happened on other occasions.
That same day, it was reported that three men and a woman apparently drowned in the Darien jungle, the natural border between Colombia and Panama, while trying to enter Panamanian territory.
“I call on the governments of Colombia and Panama to guarantee the protection of migrants and refugees on this migratory route. Safe access and transit in the midst of the pandemic must be possible,” said Director Arseniuk.
The Darien is one of the most dangerous borders in the world, due to the dangers of the jungle itself and the merciless weather, but also to the presence of armed groups and drug trafficking organizations that also control the routes taken by migrants.
Between Campurganá, the Colombian town where the journey through the jungle closest to the border begins, and Bajo Chiquito, the first stop in Panama, there are only 60 kilometers, but it takes the migrants up to five days to cross this lush route.
In those few kilometers, they face human rights violations, robberies, threats, human trafficking and sexual assault.
Nonetheless, every year thousands of irregular migrants from Haiti, Cuba, Africa and Asia, moved by human traffickers, reach in Panama from South America and bound for the United States to improve their living conditions, in a flow that has generated humanitarian crises in the Central American island state in recent years.