Panama will decide which migrants are eligible to be returned after crossing the Darien

Panamanian authorities will decide which migrants are eligible to be returned to their countries of origin after crossing the Darien jungle, the dangerous natural border with Colombia used as a route to reach North America, within the framework of an agreement signed between Panama and the United States to reduce the migratory flow, a U.S. official said Tuesday.

“Anyone that the Government of Panama determines should be returned will be ‘eligible’ for the program” that returns migrants to their country, said the regional attaché for internal security of the United States, Marlen Piñeiro, in Panama City.

On July 1, the same day that José Raúl Mulino was sworn in as president, Panama signed an agreement with the U.S. government to return migrants who cross the Darién by air.

There is still no date for the start of these flights, but Piñeiro said on Tuesday that it will be “imminent.”

The official explained that the details of this “pilot” agreement between the two countries are still being finalized, but noted that the return of migrants will be carried out under the legal framework of Panamanian law, which includes three figures: expulsion, deportation and repatriation.

Program details

“This repatriation program is based on Panamanian law, which has three categories: deportations, expulsions and voluntary repatriations. We are developing and collaborating in the area of ​​expulsions and deportations,” the official explained, clarifying that the program is not exclusive to voluntary repatriations.

He also stressed that migrants “do not necessarily have to have a criminal record” to be returned, as Panama already does, but that “they have to fall under the deportation and expulsion law” of the Central American country.

He stressed that the role of the United States within this agreement “is to verify that the procedures are in accordance with these international laws,” in addition to financing the program, which includes flights to return migrants.

The agreement between Panama and the United States is worth 6 million dollars, although the American official explained today that the money will not be “delivered directly” to the Panamanian government, but will be used to finance the support to put the program into operation.

The goal of the pact

This agreement is intended to reduce the flow of migrants through the dangerous Darien jungle, which has already been crossed by more than 216,000 migrants so far this year, most of them Venezuelans, while in all of 2023 there were more than 520,000, an unprecedented figure, according to official data from Panama.

To reduce this flow, since July 3, Panama has progressively fenced off some 4.7 kilometers in Darien, where there were at least five unauthorized crossings or trails, with “perimeter barriers” (barbed wire fences) to “channel” the flow of migrants through a “humanitarian corridor.”

While awaiting comparative data for the entire month of July compared to the previous month, Panamanian authorities say that following these measures, a reduction in the number of pedestrians has already been noticed.

Beginning

The director general of the National Migration Service, Roger Mojica Rivera, recently stated that his migration policy is guided by the international principles of safe, orderly and regular migration, “and it is clear that the transit of migrants through the Darien jungle is neither safe, nor orderly, nor regular.”

Darién is a jungle that forms a natural border between Panama and Colombia, with a length of 266 kilometers. Migrants cross it on their way to North America, where they often face dangers such as sudden flooding of rivers or attacks by wild animals or armed groups, who charge migrants for passage or rob them, and sometimes they are also victims of sexual abuse.

Washington / EFE