Panama’s government is planning to ramp up deportations of migrants who reach the country irregularly through the Darién Gap at the border between Colombia and Panama. The jungle trek is a highly dangerous route which sees hundreds of thousands of migrants, including children, crossing every year, while also making many vulnerable to violence, sexual abuse, and human trafficking.
Panama’s new president, José Raúl Mulino, announced early this month plans to shut down the Darién Gap route and repatriate all migrants who cross into Panama. Reportedly, Mulino’s foreign minister signed an agreement with the US government which establishes that the US will cover the costs of repatriating migrants who enter Panama irregularly. The deal is intended to reduce the numbers of migrants “being smuggled through the Darién, usually en route to the United States,” said a spokesperson for the White House National Security Council.
The Darién Gap Route
The Darién Gap is a dangerous jungle passage at the border between Colombia and Panama, which sees hundreds of thousands of migrants–mainly from Venezuela, Ecuador, Haiti and China–crossing every year. According to figures, in 2023 the number of people undertaking the perilous journey reached a record of more than half a million people, of whom 113,00 were children. The numbers in 2024 reached some 213,702 crossings by mid-year. UNICEF reports that in the first four months of 2024 alone, more than 30,000 children have travelled through the Darién Gap.
Such figures are concerning considering the dangers of a route characterised by natural perils and ruled by armed gangs, drug-trafficking groups, and human smugglers. Observers say that migrants who make the jungle trek are vulnerable to frequent episodes of violence, sexual abuse, human trafficking, and disease. Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) reports that robbery, kidnapping and rape are very common and that in 2023 they treated 397 survivors of sexual violence, many of whom were children.
Several researchers have criticised the plan to close the Darién Gap as an impossible task, with some noting that the country would have to massively ramp up its detention capacity. “In the entire country, they have capacity for about 30 people. … You’d have to first build detention facilities and ramp up access to asylum processing, which is pretty much non-existent in Panama, to comply with international legal obligations,” one expert told Reuters.
