Venezuelans represent 51% of migrants crossing the Darien so far in 2023 | via: Diario TalCual
Diario TalCual | Venezuela | July 2, 2023
Unofficial translation made by HumVenezuela…
100,514 of the travelers who passed through the Darien jungle between January and June 2023 are Venezuelan. Since May 11, new immigration restrictions were also activated in the United States, with the termination of Title 42 and the application of Title 8 in its place.
Panamanian officials reported on Sunday, July 2, that 196,370 migrants crossed the Darien jungle, the natural border between Panama and Colombia. This figure is almost four times the 49,452 of the same period in 2022.
51%, or 100,514 of the travelers who transited the Darien jungle between January and June 2023, were Venezuelans.
Venezuelans were followed by Haitians (33,074), Ecuadorians (25,105), citizens of 23 African countries (6,420), Chileans (4,964) and Colombians (3,579).
Since May 11, new immigration restrictions have also been activated in the United States, with the termination of the well-known Title 42 and the application in its place of Title 8, the regulation that has historically governed migration in this country, in addition to other measures that restrict access to seek asylum on its southern border with Mexico.
April was the month with the highest number of travelers entering Panama through the jungle on their irregular journey to North America. It registered 40,297 people, or 6.5 times more than the 6,134 of the same month in 2022.
This was followed in decreasing order by May with 38,962, March with 38,009, June with 29,721, January with 24,634 and February with 24,657 migrants.
Panama receives irregular travelers on their way to North America at migration stations located near its southern border with Colombia and on the northern border with Costa Rica, where they are offered health care and food, in a unique operation in the continent involving a dozen international organizations.
At the close of June there were 4,767 migrants spread out in these border facilities, according to official data.
The Darien is a 575,000-hectare national park in Panama. Many of the accounts of experiences in this inhospitable jungle include deaths, rapes, assaults, suicides.
Travelers face the dangers of the wilderness and those of criminal groups operating there.