By Nils Castroon May 27, 2021
The heterogeneous migratory flow entering Panama through the border with Colombia is continuing and growing. Despite the harshness and lethality of the trails that penetrate Panamanian territory through the jungle, it is foreseeable that the size, morbidity, harmful consequences and costs of attention to this human drama will continue to increase.
Colombia receives these migrants from multiple origins -Asians, Africans and Caribbeans-, through various land, river and maritime routes and borders. Despite the fact that Colombian authorities exercise weak control and monitoring of this flow, the problem does not reach a critical level in its territory, because the same migrants immediately migrate to Panama.
But that is where this option ends. Although the migrants do not intend to stay in Panama, the borders of Costa Rica and Nicaragua – much more controllable – are closed to them. It is in Panama where their mass, their complexity and the risk of undesirable behavior accumulates. Their eventual conversion into a productive population is minimal: this is not their goal.
The alternative of closing the border with Colombia to irregular immigration is unrealistic. The routes through the Darien Gap vary across 575,000 square kilometers of mountains and jungle, one of the rainiest in the world. Although Panama has increased control of its part of the border area, the same cannot be said of the Colombian side. And it is on that side where the bulk of the illegal organizations and groups that traffic drugs and migrants are located.
In addition, there are humanitarian reasons that Panama cannot avoid: after suffering the inhospitable crossing and being plundered and harassed by bandits and “coyotes”, these thousands of migrants arrive in modest Panamanian villages in precarious physical, sanitary and economic conditions -many without reliable identification-, apart from an undetermined number who die without burial on either side of the border.
For Panama, dealing with these problems bilaterally with Colombia, in their political, migratory, humanitarian, health and security dimensions, is indispensable as a matter of principle and, moreover, necessary to set a precedent. In this sense, the initial actions of the Panamanian Foreign Ministry have been correct. However, in terms of practical results, this is still insufficient and will probably have few results.
A few years ago, when there were guerrilla activities in the border area, Colombia requested Panamanian cooperation in security matters, and it was effectively provided. But the migration problem is of a different nature and is not a priority for Colombian authorities. The trafficking of civilian migrants is not similarly sighted or supervised and, in practice -although it is not said so-, it relieves that country of a problem. No less than 80 adult and child survivors per day continue to enter through the hidden channels of the Darien “plug”.
Panama will only be able to effectively solve this problem by making it widely known and internationalized. As a highly newsworthy topic, it is necessary to make it known on a regional and global scale, and to bring it up for debate in the relevant international forums. Among other things, it should be placed on the agenda of the OAS and made visible in the UN and its specialized agencies.
In the history of Panama -a small country located in such a coveted strategic location-, every national problem of this magnitude has only been solved by giving it global relevance (as in January 1964 or during the Torrijos-Carter negotiations). In the present case, the aim is that, with international cooperation, the surveillance and control of the border territory should also be exercised on the Colombian side, with binational coordination. And, likewise, so that the Colombian political and judicial agenda gives priority to the prosecution of organizations and activities of migratory trafficking.
Original Source: Rebelión, translation Resumen Latinoamericano – English