Migrants entering Panama from Colombia through the Darien jungleon his way to USAwill be fined up to $5,000, Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino warned this Thursday.
“Any person who enters the country (…) violating immigration control posts, land, air or sea, will be fined an amount ranging between one thousand dollars and five thousand dollars, depending on the severity of the infraction,” said Mulino. at his weekly press conference.
The president made these statements six days after an executive decree was published in the official gazette that increases fines for migrants, in an attempt to stop entry through the jungle.
According to the new rule, the migrant who does not pay the fine “will not be able to leave the country” and, “if they do not have the financial resources to comply with the imposed sanction, they will be deported.”
However, the decree stipulates that the penalty “must be adjusted so that it is accessible and (migrants) can pay it before leaving the national territory.”
The Darién has become a corridor for migrants who, from South America, try to reach the United States through Central America and Mexico.
In 2023, more than 520,000 people will traverse the jungle, where they face dangers such as rushing rivers, wild animals and criminal gangs that rob, rape and kill.
Others arrive injured and without money at the Panamanian checkpoints, where basic services are provided to migrants, before they continue their journey to the border with Costa Rica.
So far this year, some 283,000 migrants have entered Panama through the jungle, according to official figures, 37% less than in the same period in 2023. The vast majority are Venezuelans, although there are also Colombians, Ecuadorians, Haitians and Chinese.
“In the month of September there were 25,111 migrants and today we are at more or less 21,542” in October, Mulino stated.
The Panamanian government began a program, financed by the United States, to deport those who cross the Darien. The immigration issue is key in Tuesday’s US elections.
