Some 302,000 migrants, mostly Venezuelans, crossed the Panamanian jungle of Darién in 2024 on their way to the United States, 41% less than the previous year, Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino announced on Thursday. This decrease is registered less than three weeks before Donald Trump assumes the presidency of the United States, who has promised mass deportations.
“We have achieved a 41% reduction in the flow of immigrants crossing the Darién jungle,” on the border with Colombia, Mulino said in an opening speech to the Panamanian Congress. According to figures from the National Migration Service, in 2024, 302,203 people crossed the Darién, compared to 520,085 in 2023.
The Panamanian jungle has become a corridor for migrants who, from South America, try to reach the United States. Most of them are Venezuelans, although there are also Colombians, Ecuadorians, Chinese, and Haitians, among others. In that journey, they face dangers such as fast-flowing rivers, wild animals, and criminal groups that rob, rape, and kill them, according to international organizations. “Today we work day by day so that this illegal migration does not reach the (capital) city or the rest of the country,” said Mulino.
The Panamanian government attributes this decrease to the closure of some paths in the jungle and to the help of Washington, which finances the repatriation flights of migrants through an agreement signed in July. With this program, which includes a US contribution of six million dollars, Panama has deported more than 1,500 migrants on about forty flights to Colombia, Ecuador, and India.
However, this measure does not include Venezuelans, whom Panama allows to continue towards the United States since Caracas does not allow the arrival of flights from the Central American country. There is a “logistical problem with Venezuela, but its migrants advance towards the north of Central America as appropriate and, of course, respecting all their human rights,” said Mulino.
The Panamanian president stated on December 19 that in 2024 at least 55 migrants died and 180 children were abandoned while crossing the Darién. Panamanian authorities suspect that the death toll may be higher since many bodies cannot be recovered due to the inaccessibility of the terrain or because they are devoured by animals.
