Q24N (EFE) An agreement between Panama and the United States to repatriate irregular migrants crossing the Darien Gap, in force since last July, has reduced the transit through that jungle of Ecuadorian citizens by 92% and that of Colombians by 65%, the US Embassy in Panama said last week.
The agreement, signed on July 1, contemplates the repatriation by air and based on Panamanian laws of irregular migrants who have arrived in Panama after crossing the jungle bordering Colombia, with the United States financing the flights.
“Since the flights began, we have seen a decrease in the crossing of Ecuadorian and Colombian migrants of 92% and 65%, respectively, compared to the months of August and September of last year,” said the US Embassy in Panama in a statement.
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Colombians and Ecuadorians are among the main nationalities of irregular migrants crossing the jungle to North America. For several years now, the vast majority have been Venezuelan, although the deportation plan cannot be applied to them given the suspension, since the end of July, of diplomatic relations between Panama and Venezuela.
As of October 13, 274,444 irregular travelers have arrived in Panama through the jungle, 36.5% less than the 432,211 registered in the same period in 2023, according to Panamanian statistics.
Nearly 800 were deported on 19 flights
Some 787 migrants have been deported on 19 flights financed by US$1,140,846 from the US in air operations carried out by Panama “to deport or expel irregular migrants who do not have the legal basis to remain in the country,” said a statement from the US diplomatic mission last week.
The US funding “covers the passage of deportees, escorts, translators, among other related expenses,” according to official information.
“The first flight under this program was carried out on August 20, 2024, and the most recent was carried out on October 19. In the first three months of the pilot plan, people have been deported or expelled on charter flights to Colombia, Ecuador and India. In addition, four irregular migrants were returned on commercial flights to Afghanistan, Pakistan, Russia and Turkey,” it added.
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The deported or expelled irregular migrants, some of them with notable criminal records, were processed according to Panama’s immigration law, following international agreements for the protection of migrants, the diplomatic mission said.
The US ambassador to Panama, Mari Carmen Aponte, said that “Panama is a close ally of the United States and proof of this is that it was the first country to have such an understanding with us.”
The objective, according to the US Embassy, “is to highlight that irregular migrants can be returned to their countries, even if they manage to cross the dangerous Darien jungle.”
Likewise, the diplomatic source stressed that irregular migration “only benefits organized crime, which profits from the need of people, without caring if the migrants die on the way.”
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Panama and the United States signed this agreement on July 1 to return migrants who cross the Darien border, which is experiencing a crisis due to the migratory flow, and for which the State Department allocated US$6 million dollars to the Department of Homeland Security of the North American country to finance it.
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