Panama, Colombia ministers visit Darién jungle amid migrant flow

The foreign ministers of Colombia and Panama visited the Darién jungle border on Sunday, a route taken by thousands of migrants, ahead of a meeting with the United States to discuss illegal migration.

Colombian Minister Luis Gilberto Murillo and Panamanian Minister Javier Martínez-Acha have “visited the border area of ​​Capurganá and Necocli” as a “preliminary meeting for the trilateral working session” they will hold on Monday with the United States to analyze the migration issue, the Panamanian Foreign Ministry said on the social network X.

The ministers are meeting with U.S. representatives in Cartagena, on Colombia’s Caribbean coast. The Darién is a 575,000-hectare jungle that has become a route for thousands of migrants heading to the United States, despite the many natural hazards and the danger of being attacked, raped or murdered by criminal gangs.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said Sunday that its chief, Alejandro Mayorkas, will meet Monday with the foreign ministers of Panama and Colombia to discuss illegal migration and organized crime in the three countries.

According to official Panamanian figures, more than 230,000 migrants have crossed the border this year, up from more than 520,000 in 2023.

Last Sunday, the Panamanian Ministry of Security announced that in 2023, 153,226 Venezuelan migrants, 14,659 Colombians, 14,569 Ecuadorians, 12,067 Chinese citizens, 11,224 Haitians and 25,330 migrants of other nationalities have traveled through the Darién.

Irregular migration is one of the main issues in the US election campaign, with a new president due to be elected in November. When Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino took office on July 1, he signed a migration agreement with the United States, in which Washington committed to finance the deportation of migrants crossing the Darién with six million dollars.

Panama first implemented the agreement with Washington on Tuesday, deporting 29 Colombians with criminal records who also entered the country via the Darién on a charter flight. On Saturday, Panama deported another 30 Colombian migrants under the same agreement.