Panama warns that more than 10 migrants have drowned after the flooding of the Darien rivers

2023-06-01 04:20:53

The Panamanian authorities have found in recent weeks more than 10 bodies of irregular migrants who drowned in the now swollen rivers of the jungle of the Darienon the southern border with Colombia, revealed this Wednesday the head of the Panamanian Migration office, Samira Gozaine.

“In recent weeks we have rescued more than 10 corpses in the rivers, unfortunately,” since migrants who travel irregularly to North America “continue to insist on crossing” the jungle, which is the dangerous natural border between Panama and Colombia, “despite the mighty rivers,” he said Gozaine.

According to project data migrants Disappeared from the International Organization for Migration (IOM), updated as of May 30, 19 people on the move have disappeared in the Darién jungle this year, while in 2022 there were 137. Many of the deaths and disappearances registered in the jungle by the IOM Program occur near large rivers. Also by the bite of snakes or spiders, and by accidents that leave the person badly injured and without the possibility of attention.

Gozaine maintained that the rivers of the Darién “are very swollen”, a fact to which he attributed the flow of irregular travelers who are arriving in Panama after crossing the jungle, which they enter from Colombia. Yesterday Tuesday, said the director of the National Migration Service of Panama, “790 people entered through the jungle trail”, a figure well below the more than 1,000 who were doing so weeks ago, according to official data. “So we continue to receive migrants. Almost 170,000 people have entered Panama so far this year“, an “extremely high number compared to other years” before, Gozaine added.

A total of 33,819 migrants crossed the Darién in the first five months of 2022, a year that closed with a record number of 248,284 travelers bound for North America. The unprecedented migratory crisis that the continent is experiencing makes the authorities of Panama that the number of irregular travelers that arrived in the country in 2022 could double at the end of this year. A change in US immigration policy applied as of this May has raised expectations about whether it will discourage migrants from undertaking this dangerous journey north.