Per Panamanian immigration officials, a record number of migrants have crossed the perilous Darien Gap, a mountainous rainforest area that connects South and Central America.
According to Maria Isabel Saravia, deputy head of the Panamanian migration department, the already high threshold for 2022 was broken on Monday.
An “unprecedented year” in which 248,284 individuals visited the Darién National Park, according to her, was the previous year. As the year goes on, it increasingly appears that 2023 will surpass that figure.
There have been 248,901 crossings as of today and yesterday, according to Saravia, who spoke on Monday.
According to authorities, 20% of those attempting the perilous journey are children and adolescents.
“At least 51% of the people in that age group are kids under the age of five. We surpassed last year’s total, as predicted by the statistics. In terms of crossings, the last three years have been significantly greater than the previous 11,” Saravia continued.
According to her, the majority of those crossing are from Haiti and Venezuela, followed by migrants from other continents and Colombia.
The 60-kilometer (37-mile) trek across the Darien Gap, which connects Colombia and Panama, is a significant route for people trying to cross into the US and Canada.
People are migrating north in greater numbers as a result of widespread migration throughout the Western Hemisphere.
The number of daily encounters along the US border remained low in June, despite warnings from officials that an increase in illegal migration across the southern border of the US would occur when a border restriction put in place under President Trump that had been used during the pandemic to turn back migrants at the US-Mexico border would expire in May.
According to a news release from the Department of Homeland Security in June, “illegal entries between ports of entry along the Southwest Border have decreased by more than 70% since May 11 as a result of planning and execution, which combined stiffer consequences for unlawful entry with a historic expansion of lawful pathways and processes.”
Human rights advocates allege that migrants who were fleeing danger in their home countries are currently languishing in limbo in Mexico as they wait for their asylum claims to be processed, and it is unclear whether the deterrent impact will persist.
To get to the US, others are being compelled to go on increasingly dangerous routes, according to campaigners. Numerous bodies were discovered inside a semi-truck in Texas in June.