President of Panama José Raúl Mulino announced on Thursday that local authorities have detected an increase in U.S.-bound Chinese migrants crossing the Darién Gap jungle trail.
The Darién Gap is a 30-mile-wide, 100-mile-long jungle trail that Panama shares with neighboring Colombia and is the only land bridge between South and Central America. In recent years, a dramatic and unprecedented number of migrants have passed through the dangerous jungle trail en route to the United States.
Panama’s Migrant Authority documented 520,085 migrants who crossed the Darién Gap in 2023 — a record-breaking number that doubles the 248,284 logged in 2022. In 2021, authorities documented a total of 133,726 migrants who passed through the trail.
While Venezuelans fleeing the socialist regime in their country amply lead the statistics, Panama’s migration authority documented a notable surge in the number of U.S.-bound Chinese nationals passing through the jungle trail in recent years, going from a total of 296 in the entirety of 2010-2019 to 12,070 during the first eight months of 2024. China is now the fourth-largest group by nationality on the list.
In 2023, local authorities documented 25,565 Chinese migrants who passed through the jungle trail, up from the 2,005 logged in 2022.
“We have gone down in terms of [total migrant flow through the Darién Gap], but citizens from Nepal and China appeared in greater numbers in the last few entries,” Mulino said during a press conference.
Mulino, who took office on July 1, vowed to curb illegal immigration through the Darién Gap throughout his presidential campaign. Shortly after taking office, the new Panamanian government began installing barbed wire fences across some of the jungle trail’s routes and signed an agreement with the United States to establish U.S.-funded deportation flights that reportedly started in August. In that same month, the Panamanian government announced that it would launch deportation flight programs to China, India, Ecuador, and Colombia.
Mulino reportedly said during his Thursday press conference that his government is seeking to reach an agreement with Beijing to deport Chinese nationals passing through the Darién Gap but did not provide further details.
In August, Panamanian authorities announced that officers from the Senafront National Border Service dismantled a “VIP” route that Chinese migrants used to pass through the Darién Gap, arresting 15 individuals who managed it.
The “VIP” route, according to local prosecutors, saw its organizers offer Chinese migrants packages ranging from $2,600 to $8,000 per person for a faster, safer passage through the dangerous jungle trail. Passage through the “VIP” route allowed migrants to cross the jungle trail through a different route than the typical paths migrants take, which can take between five and eight days to complete.
According to Panamanian Prosecutor Emeldo Marquez, at least 700 migrants are believed to have paid for the exclusive route.
The Panamanian government reportedly foresees a considerable reduction of migrants passing through the Darién Gap by the end of 2024 compared to 2023 due to the closure of some trails and repatriation flights.
In addition to Panama, Ecuador began cracking down on illegal Chinese migrants passing through its territory by reinstating entry visa requirements for Chinese nationals in July, suspending a visa waiver agreement signed in January 2015 during the pro-China administration of socialist former President Rafael Correa.
While Panama vowed to curb the migrant flow passing through the Darién Gap, migrants can avoid the dangerous jungle trail altogether by flying to Nicaragua, where communist dictator Daniel Ortega maintains a policy of “weaponization” of migrants against the United States, granting U.S.-bound migrants safe passage through Nicaraguan territory in exchange for several fees and “fines” that have resulted in record-breaking profits for the communist regime.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
