Panama has placed barbed wire across several routes in the Dari\u00e9n Gap, the country\u2019s Ministry of Public Security said in a statement Thursday, in a bid to block migrants making their way north. <\/p>\n
At least five passages near Panama\u2019s border with Colombia have been shut using barbed wire installed by the country\u2019s border agency (Senafront). Meanwhile, Panama\u2019s navy is patrolling areas in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean. <\/p>\n
The government said the navy is instructed to stop and detain people traveling by boat with \u201cirregular migrants\u201d and to hand them over to police or immigration authorities from Colombia. On land, border authorities have closed irregular access areas with the goal of rerouting people through established border points. <\/p>\n
The United States and Panama signed an agreement this month on immigration issues that aimed to \u201cclose the passage of illegal migrants\u201d through the Dari\u00e9n Gap. Panama\u2019s President Jos\u00e9 Ra\u00fal Mulino has also vowed to stop the Central American country from being a transit route for migrants. <\/p>\n
\u201cI will not allow Panama to be a path open to thousands of people who enter our country illegally supported by an entire international organization related to drug and human trafficking,\u201d Mulino said at his swearing-in ceremony on July 1. <\/p>\n
Mulino visited the Dari\u00e9n Gap days before Thursday\u2019s announcement, saying 300 border agents were going to be deployed to monitor the area and declaring that no one would enter Panamanian territory without a passport or a valid document. <\/p>\n
Colombia\u2019s Ombudsman\u2019s Office has criticized Panama\u2019s latest move saying that the barbed wires affect at least one Colombian town\u2019s commercial and cultural exchange with areas in Panama. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe barbed wires in the jungle will only bring drowned people into the sea. Migration is stopped by removing economic blockades and improving the economy of the south,\u201d Colombia\u2019s President Gustavo Petro wrote on X. <\/p>\n
The Dari\u00e9n Gap, a mountainous rainforest region connecting South and Central America, has seen an increase in the number of migrants willing to risk their lives and safety to cross it. <\/p>\n
The 66-mile (106-kilometer) hike through the Dari\u00e9n Gap brings migrants from Colombia to Panama and is a crucial passage for those \u2013 many of whom come from other Latin American countries \u2013 hoping to reach the US and Canada. <\/p>\n
Panamanian figures show at least 174,513 migrants crossed the treacherous Dari\u00e9n Gap, from January to June 6 of this year. <\/p>\n
The latest figures are higher than around the same period in 2023, when more than 166,000 crossings were reported, according to Panama\u2019s National Migration Service. According to migration service figures, a record 520,000 people crossed the jungle last year. <\/p>\n
Other countries along the migration route have also taken steps to restrict people\u2019s movement. In June, Ecuador said it would temporarily suspend a visa waiver agreement with China over what it called an increase in irregular migration flows of Chinese citizens. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Panama has placed barbed wire across several routes in the Dari\u00e9n Gap, the country\u2019s Ministry of Public Security said in a statement Thursday, in a bid to block migrants making their way north. At least five passages near Panama\u2019s border with Colombia have been shut using barbed wire installed by the country\u2019s border agency (Senafront). Meanwhile, Panama\u2019s <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4980,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-4979","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4979","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4979"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4979\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}