Panamanian authorities will increase the number of deportations and seek to cut off the passage of criminals.
The Government of Panama promised on Tuesdayincrease the number of deportations of irregular migrants arriving in the country through the Darién TaponA dangerous jungle that connects with Colombia and where the transit of migrants fell by more than 50 percent in August after the president, Jose Raúl Mulino, promised to drastically reduce the flow.
“It is clear and clear that, given the volume of people, it is difficult to say that we are going to deport about 500 per day, but we are improving logistics. We are at the beginning of this program,” said the Minister of Public Security, Frank Alexis Ábrego, according to the newspaper ‘El Siglo’.
In this regard, he indicated that the repatriations are voluntary and that they depend on people who want to return to their countries, although he also reported on the detection of criminals “searched by Interpol and the police of Ecuador, Colombia and other countries” who entered the country through the Tapón de Darién.
“The goal is to cut off the passage of these criminals to the United States.Our primary interest is to protect citizens from access to these criminals who try to pass through our country; for example, in the last two months we have detected two members of themara Salvatrucha de El Salvador and the last one even resided in our country,” he added.
Finally, he said the United States provided about $6 million to pay for deportation flights under the memorandum of understanding signed between the two countries.
More than half a million people crossed through this area in 2023, where three steps were closed in July to try to reduce or at least channel arrivals. Joe Biden’s administration also sought the collaboration of Panamanian authorities to contain the arrivals of migrants on their southern border with Mexico.
This article has been translated after first appearing in Diario El Mundo