Rights groups and other observers have questioned a United States-led plan to halt the “illegal movement of people” through a dangerous jungle passage between Panama and Colombia popular with migrants and asylum seekers to the US.
The US Department of Homeland Security said on Tuesday that a deal has been reached with Panamanian and Colombian authorities to tackle “irregular migration” through the so-called Darien Gap.
The 60-day campaign aims to “end the illegal movement of people and goods by the Darien through both land and maritime corridors”, and to “open new legal and flexible avenues for tens of thousands of migrants and refugees”, the department said. in a rack.
The countries would also launch a plan to reduce poverty and create jobs in border communities in Panama and Colombia, it added, without going into further detail.
Observers almost immediately wondered how the effort would work out in practice.
“The externalization of the US border continues,” Al Otro Lado, an organization that provides legal and other assistance to migrants and refugees in the US and Mexico, tweeted Wednesday.
“The language in this statement is deliberately vague. How exactly do they want to end migration through the Darien Gap + ‘reduce poverty, create jobs’ in 60 days? What are these alleged ‘new legal + flexible pathways’?”
The externalization of the US border continues. The language used in this statement is deliberately vague. How exactly do they plan to end migration through the Darien Gap + “reduce poverty, create jobs” in 60 days? What are these alleged “new lawful + flexible pathways”? All very much. https://t.co/yvW6EklFCI
— Al Otro Lado (@AlOtroLado_Org) April 12, 2023
Nearly 250,000 migrants and refugees passed through the Darien Gap last year, nearly double the number of people who took the route in 2021, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
“The stories we have heard from those who crossed the Darien Gap bear witness to the horrors of this journey,” Giuseppe Loprete, head of the IOM mission in Panama, said in a statement. rack in January.
“Many have lost their lives or gone missing, while others come out with significant health problems, both physical and mental, to which we and our partners are responding.”
The administration of US President Joe Biden, which has promised to reverse some of former President Donald Trump’s harshest, anti-immigration policies, has nonetheless tried to stop migrants and asylum seekers from reaching the country’s southern border with Mexico.
Biden is under political pressure domestically to deal with an increase in arrivals at the border and is now considering another plan the United Nations refugee agency has warned could violate U.S. obligations under international refugee law.
The proposal — dubbed an “asylum ban” by critics — would effectively deny asylum seekers arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border access to protection in the U.S. if they have not first sought asylum in Mexico or another country they previously visited. journey have been crossed. .
Many people who cross the Darien Gap say they have no other choice as they face poverty, gang violence, political persecution and other crises in their home countries.
The IOM reported that a majority of those crossing in 2022 — just over 150,000 people — came from Venezuela, which has experienced a mass exodus amid years of socioeconomic and political unrest.
Ecuadorians, Haitians and Cubans also figured prominently among those who took the mountain route, which is rife with violence and natural hazards, including insects, snakes and unpredictable terrain.
Nearly 88,000 crossings were recorded in the first three months of 2023, the Reuters news agency reported, citing official Panama migration data.
On Wednesday, a senior Biden administration official told The Associated Press that U.S. troops would “assist their Colombian and Panamanian counterparts in gathering intelligence to dismantle smuggling gangs” in the Darien Gap.
“The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss details that have not been made public, said the migration through the Darien would not end, but the campaign is expected to have a significant impact,” the news agency reported.
The official did not specify whether the US forces involved in the 60-day campaign will be military or civilian law enforcement officers, the AP said.