Panama deports 130 migrants who crossed the Darien jungle

Veracruz, Panama. Panama deported 130 migrants from India on Friday who entered the country through the inhospitable Darien jungle on the border with Colombia, as part of an agreement with the United States.

“130 citizens were deported for irregular migration on our border with Colombia,” said Panama’s Immigration Director Roger Mojica at a press conference after the plane took off mid-morning.

This is the first flight with deported migrants from Panama outside of America and the fourth under the umbrella of North American cooperation. Previously, two planes were sent with deportees to Colombia and one to Ecuador.

“The United States is very grateful to the government of Panama for all of this support,” said Marlen Piñeiro, U.S. Security Attaché for Central America.

“Irregular migration cannot continue,” he added.

The Darien jungle has become a corridor for migrants from South America trying to reach the United States, where they face dangers such as fast-flowing rivers, wild animals and criminal gangs that rob, rape and kill.

In 2023, more than 520,000 people crossed the Darien, according to official Panamanian figures. So far this year, some 241,000 migrants have crossed the jungle, two-thirds of whom are Venezuelan.

However, Panama cannot deport Venezuelan migrants following the diplomatic rupture between the two countries following the disputed re-election of Nicolás Maduro on July 28. Since then, Panamanian planes have not been allowed to enter Venezuelan airspace.

“We are letting the Venezuelans continue” on their journey to the United States, Mojica said.

In 2024, more than 3,800 Indians have passed through the Panamanian jungle, a figure that exceeds the 3,736 who did so in all of 2023.

The Indian migrants departed on a chartered flight from Panama Pacifico airport, located on the opposite bank of the interoceanic canal from the capital, bound for New Delhi.

Washington has pledged to finance, with six million dollars, the deportation of migrants who cross the Panamanian jungle on their way to the United States. Under this agreement, Panama has deported 219 migrants in two weeks.

With this measure, President José Raúl Mulino seeks to stop migration through Darién.

According to the government, a 38% reduction in migrants entering Panama through the jungle is expected by 2024 compared to 2023.