Panama proposes to Colombia to analyze the ecological impact of migration in Darien.

Panama City, June 6 (EFE).- Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino said Friday that he has proposed to neighboring Colombia that they assess the ecological impact of the migration crisis in the Darien jungle, the natural border between the two countries.

During his weekly press conference, the Panamanian leader declared that after flying over the jungle, he found that what was once a "trail" or narrow path has become "a street" along which "more than a million people have traveled illegally."

"We complied and closed the Darién," but "I don't know yet what the ecological damage is there. That's an issue that needs to be assessed. The (Panamanian) Ministry of the Environment is here, and I've also raised the issue with the Colombian authorities, asking us to make an assessment," Mulino stated.

The Darien Gap, the natural lung that connects Central America with the south of the continent, was the scene of an unprecedented migration crisis between 2021 and 2024, with hundreds of thousands of people, the vast majority of them Venezuelans, traveling irregularly to the United States to flee the widespread crisis in their country.

On May 14, the Panamanian government officially closed the main immigration station at the exit of Darien, following the drastic decline in the flow of irregular travelers northward due to restrictions imposed by the new Donald Trump administration in the U.S.

The Mulino administration also links the decline in migrant traffic northward to measures such as the closure of jungle trails to create a single "humanitarian corridor," the imposition of fines for illegal entry into Panama, and the U.S.-funded deportation flight program.

In October 2023, Panama's Ministry of the Environment reported that it estimated that each migrant left behind about 9 kilos of waste in Darién during their journey through the jungle, which at the time had three most-used routes for this illegal transit, which had already affected 37 streams and 20 rivers.

It was then indicated that more than $11.9 million was required to restore environmental damage caused by the passage of migrants through Darién, a 579,000-hectare national park in Panama that was declared a World Heritage Site by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 1981.

These resources would be used to restore flora and soil, and to initiate studies to understand the impact on water sources and biodiversity, according to estimates from the Ministry of the Environment made at the end of 2023. EFE

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