The Panamanian Foreign Ministry announced this Sunday that it has called a meeting for next Tuesday with the Migration authorities of Colombia and Costa Rica, to which the United States is invited, to discuss the “delicate situation” of the flow of migrants in transit to North America.
The first trilateral technical meeting of directors of Migration from Colombia, Costa Rica and Panama, will serve to “identify the needs and establish the roadmap to address irregular migration in the region,” according to the Panamanian Foreign Ministry.
“This first meeting of analysis will evolve into other meetings, in order to build concrete solutions with which to face the challenges that our countries face in the face of irregular migratory flow,” said the Panamanian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Janaina Tewaney Mencomo, in a statement.
The meeting of migration chiefs is the result of agreements reached at the meeting of Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) held this week in Argentina, which was attended by Tewaney Mencomo along with his counterparts from Costa Rica and Colombia, Arnoldo André Tinoco and Álvaro Leyva, respectively, the statement said.
The director of the National Migration Service (SNM) of Panama, Samira Gozaine, will participate in the meeting, together with the heads of the security forces, who with their counterparts will “identify needs and establish a roadmap to face the delicate situation that both concerned”, according to official information.
The trilateral meeting will have as guests’ representatives of the United States.
A drastic decrease
Panama reported this Friday “a drastic decrease in the flow of irregular migrants, mainly Venezuelans,” who arrive in the country through the Darién jungle, the border with Colombia, through which 208,866 people have entered so far this year, an unprecedented figure.
“In the last three days, only 2,292 people have entered through the irregular route, of which 624 are Venezuelan nationals, which indicates a drastic decrease in this type of migration,” the Ministry of Public Security (Minseg) said in a statement., who cited data from the SNM.
The drop in the figure occurs after the United States Government announced on October 12 the rule that indicates that every Venezuelan who enters that country, having irregularly crossed the border of Mexico and Panama, will be expelled to the territory Mexican.
The dangerous Darien jungle has been for decades an irregular migration route used by people from all over the world who travel to the United States, despite the serious dangers it entails due to its wild environment and the presence of organized crime groups. (https://thecostaricanews.com/panama-will-hold-a-meeting-with-colombia-and-costa-rica-to-discuss-migration-issues/)
