“I think it will act as a deterrent,” assures the Panamanian President, José Raúl Mulino, repeated in particular by La Prensa. Panama began implementing the agreement signed with the United States on 1eh July last year for “deport foreigners who are undocumented” in the Central American country.
Between Tuesday, August 20 and Saturday, August 25, three flights were chartered to neighboring Colombia, carrying less than a hundred people. At the moment, the Panamanian authorities are talking about “deportations” because the deportees were wanted criminals in Colombia.
Three other flights are currently scheduled, to Ecuador, India and China. “According to the Panamanian authorities, this is the beginning of a new – much firmer – strategy to reduce the flow of migrants, the vast majority of whom have the United States as their final destination.” writes the page El País America, which reminds that Washington has committed to finance the plan to the value of 6 million dollars (5.4 million euros).
Each year, tens of thousands of migrants cross – or attempt to cross – the border between Colombia and Panama through the “Darién Strait”, a thick, sometimes deadly tropical forest and where they are often exposed to waves of drug-trafficking smugglers. El País America continues:
“The passage through this road, which is known to be impassable, has broken all records in recent years.”
Barbed wire
The number increased from 130,000 people in 2021 to more than 500,000 in 2023, more than half of them are Venezuelans fleeing the economic and political crisis.
But in addition to Latin Americans, the passage is also used by migrants from Africa or Asia. Elected on May 6 in Panama, and invested on May 1eh July, conservative President José Raúl Mulino promised that “close Darién” to migrants.
“In early July, Panamanian authorities fenced off several crossing points used by migrants with barbed wire,” writing La Prensa in another article.
As for deportations of migrants by air, they are supposed to depend on the return agreements concluded with each of the countries concerned. But Carolina Jiménez Sandoval, president of the human rights NGO Wola (Washington Office on Latin America), is concerned about the Venezuelan site Efecto Cocuyo : “We know nothing about the criteria that will be used in the selection of those expelled, although governments say they will respect international standards.”
