Panama calls for solidarity in managing migration through Darién Gap

While migration from the Northern Triangle region and Venezuela receives substantial international attention, more resources must be put behind the humanitarian response for people from other parts of the world who are moving through Central America, Panamanian Foreign Minister Erika Mouynes told Devex.

Mouynes, who hosted a regional summit to discuss the issue last week, said her country needs assistance responding to the influx of migrants entering Panama through the Darién Gap, an extremely dangerous route from Colombia. She said her country is currently financing all of the migration centers it runs.

The numbers are unprecedented. While about 20,000 people cross the jungle border in a typical year, Panama has already received more than 50,000 migrants through the Darién Gap in 2021. More than 10,000 arrived in June, and nearly 20,000 arrived in July. Most are passing through with an aim to reach the United States.

“Migrants from the Caribbean region, as well as from Africa — that kind of migration has been happening for the last 12 years, and we’ve never really focused on it. And the truth is that in the last few months, [there has been] a significant surge well beyond [the capabilities of] any of the countries that it goes through,” Mouynes said in an interview with Devex. “We are trying to raise awareness on this issue and try to get more states to share the responsibility.”

Mouynes’ first high-level ministerial summit brought together officials from Costa Rica, Colombia, Ecuador, Chile, Brazil, Mexico, Peru, Canada, and the U.S. She said Panama’s small size means the country needs more support in responding to the migrants, the majority of whom arriving so far this year — more than 30,000 — are from Haiti.

Most Haitians do not travel to Panama directly from their home country but instead have been living in South American nations such as Brazil and Chile. A lack of economic opportunities and changing visa requirements can cause people to leave those countries to migrate north, according to Santiago Luengo, migration operation manager at the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in Panama.

People of around 40 nationalities have crossed the Darién Gap this year, Luengo said, presenting a large challenge for local staffers working to treat humanitarian needs such as malnourishment and disease. They have come from as far away as Angola, Uzbekistan, Burkina Faso, Mauritania, and Nigeria.

“We are not promoting the migration, but we are promoting that the people can receive the things they need: communication, shelter, water, health services, and everything. That’s part of the mandate,” Luengo said. “It’s part of the role of different national [IFRC] societies that are also trying to support the government in an auxiliary role to respond to the needs of the migrants.”

All migrants passing through Panama are required to show identification and register. It’s often the first country along the migration route that collects biometric information. Panama is not deporting any of these people, Mouynes said, but instead focuses on providing them with the services they need while passing through the country.

“They all want to go to the U.S. They all do. We’ve tried programs to re-socialize them to get them to stay. They’re not interested,” Mouynes said. “If you compare it [the number of migrants] to last year, we’re probably going to end up tenfold.”

When people are arriving from other parts of the world, IFRC uses its global network of national societies to get culturally sensitive information in the appropriate languages. For example, to ensure effective communication with migrants from Bangladesh, staffers can ask that country’s IFRC office for flyers about COVID-19 safety protocols and distribute them so that migrants have the information in their native language.

Luengo said IFRC anticipates that recent humanitarian disasters could also affect flows of people from certain regions.

“Most of the people right now are coming from Haiti. … And we don’t have the [migration] numbers after the earthquake, of course, last Saturday. Maybe it will be a push factor,” Luengo said. “And the situation in Afghanistan also could be something that we are also monitoring because the routes are in place. The people of that country are crossing through the Darién Gap.”

IFRC coordinates closely with regional governments, as well as United Nations agencies and NGOs providing services to migrants, to be sure the response is as coordinated as possible. Luengo said the national societies of Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, Honduras, and Guatemala meet regularly to share information and particularly to pass along details about people journeying north so that appropriate resources are in place when they arrive.

There has been a high number of children crossing the Darién Gap recently, Luengo said, amounting to around 23% of those who have arrived in Panama in the past two weeks.

While most children are crossing with a family unit or other relatives, he said some minors are sent with a different adult to finish the journey if a parent becomes too tired to continue through the jungle. If a child arrives without a family member, Panamanian authorities must follow certain protocols to ensure protection needs are met, Luengo said.

Mouynes said countries need to present “concrete proposals” for how they will help better manage regional migration. Leaders agreed at last week’s summit to form an operational-level working group to address both immediate humanitarian needs and the root causes of migration.

Some of those root causes include the climate impacts in countries such as Haiti, with disaster response efforts directing funding away from treating widespread poverty and preventing the treatment of underlying vulnerabilities, she said.

Panama needs financial assistance if it is to continue to provide support to migrants across the country, Mouynes said.

“We’ve maxed out, in terms of our budget, what we can do. And with the numbers that are increasing, it becomes extremely challenging for us during the midst of a pandemic. We provide a lot of relief to the migrants, neglecting at times our local communities that also need support and are also struggling because of the pandemic,” Mouynes said.

“Everything comes from our budget,” she continued.“If we can do this [support for migrants], other countries can. And they can also recognize what’s happening.”