Migrants travel through the Darien Gap in the border between Panama and Colombia, Darien
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A record-breaking half a million migrants crossed the dangerous jungle that connects Central and South America in 2023, despite policy shifts from the United States and several other governments in the Americas to stop unauthorized migration in the region, according to data from Panama’s immigration agency.
The Central American country registered that an unprecedented 520,085 people had crossed through the border with Colombia, a treacherous stretch of wilderness known as the Darién Gap, on their journey north towards the United States.
That number has doubled from 2022, when 248,284 people crossed the Gap. Nearly two thirds of those migrants were from Venezuela, which has seen an estimated 7.7 million people leave the country amid political, social and economic turmoil. Another 20% were either Ecuadorian or Haitian.
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The record number of crossers reflects the changing trends of migration and raises questions about efforts from the U.S. and other countries in the region to curb irregular migration in the Western Hemisphere, as hundreds of thousands of people from countries in crisis leave their homes in search of better living and economic conditions elsewhere.
Human Rights Watch: U.S. policy is fueling migration through the dangerous Darién Gap
“The challenges that the unprecedented population movements in the Americas pose are formidable … no country on its own is equipped to address them,” said Filippo Grandi, high commissioner for refugees of the United Nations, in a statement last month.
The journey by foot across the Darién Gap is dangerous. The territory is controlled by criminal gangs and drug traffickers who shuffle people and illegal goods through it, and is filled with wild animals and harrowing terrains. Since 2014, at least 360 people have died in the Darién Gap due to drownings, harsh environments, sickness and violence, according to the IOM’s Missing Migrant Project, although that number is likely an undercount.
The number of migrants crossing through the Darién Gap has historically been a mirror of the state of migration in the Western Hemisphere. Between 2010 and 2019, the Panamanian government registered over 109,000 Darién Gap crossers. Sixty-five percent were from Cuba and Haiti. As COVID-19 raged throughout Latin America and the rest of the world in 2020, migration in the Darién Gap slowed down to less than 7,000 and was made up of mostly Haitians.
Crossings sprang back up to 133,726 in 2021, with Haitians and Cubans fueling the uptick. However, the number of Cubans coming through Darién significantly dropped after Nicaragua made visa-free travel possible for people from the island. A little over a thousand Cubans illegally crossed in 2023. About 113,000 crossers were children last year, according to figures from the Panamanian government.
MORE: Migrant kids are moving through Latin America and the Caribbean in record numbers
In April 2023, the United States launched a joint, 60-day operation in the Darién Gap along with Panama and Colombia to, among other goals, end illegal migration in the jungle. But critics blasted the goal and timeframe of shutting down the illegal migration and trade route as unrealistic.
The U.S. government also launched a parole program for Cuba, Haiti, Venezuela, and Nicaragua that allowed people to come and live in the United States for a period of two years as long as they passed health and background checks, paid for their airfare and had a financial sponsor. But migrants are barred from entering the country through the program if they illegally entered Mexico or Panama after Jan. 2023. Over 297,000 people have arrived in the United States through the program.
The federal government has also set up centers known as “Safe Mobility Offices” that process parole, family reunification and refugee resettlement cases. There are offices in Guatemala, Costa Rica, and Colombia. Services are available to Haitians, Nicaraguans, Venezuelans, Guatemalans, and Colombians, depending on location. The State Department also announced in October the launch of a new office in Ecuador.
At a regional summit in October that Mexico hosted for several Latin American and Caribbean countries, several governments pledged to address the “structural causes of irregular migration,” among other measures,and to urge “destination countries” to expand on regular pathways to migration.
READ MORE: How Nicaragua is helping – and charging – Haitians who want to reach the United States
Tens of thousands of migrants have also bypassed the Darién altogether by flying directly into Central America. Nicaragua has become a hotspot for visa-free migration for Haitians and other nationalities, although the Haitian government suspended Managua-bound flights, while the U.S. announced sanctions for charter flight operators and others aiding the Haitian migration to Nicaragua. Meanwhile, El Salvador slapped “airport improvement fees” on passengers from several African countries and India, who have also been coming through Central America to reach the United States.
Miami Herald staff writer Ana Claudia Chacin contributed to this report.
This story was originally published January 17, 2024 3:18 PM.
Syra Ortiz Blanes covers immigration for the Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald. Previously, she was the Puerto Rico and Spanish Caribbean reporter for the Heralds through Report for America.
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Publish date : 2024-01-17 03:00:00
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