The new immigration policy has left thousands of Venezuelans halfway there.
Last week, the United States Government launched a program that gives legal status for two years to Venezuelans who arrive by plane and will immediately expel those who cross the border with Mexico by land, as a measure to stop the massive wave of migration of that current nationality.
Not included in this program are those who enter irregularly through Panama, that is, through the Darién, Mexico, and those who have been deported in the last five years.
This decision has left thousands of migrants who crossed the jungle prior to the US government’s announcement in limbo.
In Bajo Chiquito, the Panamanian indigenous town where exhausted migrants arrive after crossing the Darién Gap, the recent news is still a “rumor”.
There is no telecommunications signal in Bajo Chiquito, therefore, there is no way to verify the news. The National Border Service (Senafront), the specialized militarized security force that guards the borders of Panama, should not give information.
His role, which is extrapolated from his real duties, is to provide protection and security – a type of humanitarian aid – to the thousands of irregular migrants who arrive daily broken from the jungle.
In Bajo Chiquito, an average of 1,500 migrants arrive daily, but there are days that exceed 2,000. So far this year, 187,644 passers-by have crossed the jungle, by either of its two routes.
The majority (more than 70%) are Venezuelan, but there are also from Haiti, Bangladesh, India, Somalia, Colombia and even the Philippines, according to data provided by the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
This record and very high figure compared to previous years has led the Panamanian authorities to formally request help from the entire continent.
The migrants arrive in that small town dirty, wet, trembling (from fear and fever), sick and desperate, after having walked between two days – the fastest – and six days through the Darién from Colombia.
Their hope is to get to the US to “work” fleeing the “hunger that kills them” in Venezuela, a country that “hurts” to see plunged into a crisis without light at the end of the tunnel, according to reports.
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