Panama

July 20, 2024 12:52 PM

Panama to start deporting migrants from Darien Gap within months

Panama's government expects to start deportation flights for migrants who crossed the country's dangerous Darien jungle in two to three months, the country's chief of migration Roger Mojica said Friday. The flights will be paid by the United States under a recent agreement that the two countries closed earlier this month. "We are establishing the needs, equipment and requirements that Panama has to face in order to start the program, and we are in conversations with the United States," Mojica ...

June 7, 2024 12:40 PM

Migrants crossing Panama’s Darien Gap in increasing numbers

Just over 170,000 migrants crossed the perilous Darien Gap that connects Panama to Colombia over the first five months of this year, Panama's migration agency said on Thursday, suggesting 2024 could again break records. This is 2% higher than the nearly 167,000 who made the crossing in the same period of last year, data from the National Migration Service (SNM) showed, as more people embark on the dangerous crossing, many seeking better opportunities in the United States. Last year marked a re...

May 16, 2024 10:12 AM

UN sees number of young migrants crossing the dangerous Darien Gap up by a third

The number of minors crossing the treacherous jungle between Colombia and Panama known as the Darien Gap is on pace to rise by 34% to reach 160,000 this year, the United Nations' Children Fund (UNICEF) said on Wednesday. The migration of mostly U.S.-bound kids through the Darien Gap represents "a prolonged crisis," UNICEF said in a statement, adding that current data points to record child migration in 2024 for the fifth consecutive year in the dangerous stretch of jungle. More than 30,000 min...