The number of migrants and asylum seekers traversing the Darien Gap — the treacherous strip of jungle connecting South and North America — has fallen by nearly 41 percent in the last year.
On Thursday, Panama’s right-wing President Jose Raul Mulino announced the decline, touting it as a success for the country’s efforts to limit irregular migration.
“We have achieved a 41 percent reduction in the flow of migrants crossing the Darien jungle,” Raul Mulino told Panama’s Congress in a speech.
“We work every day to ensure that illegal migration does not reach [Panama City] or the rest of the country.”
Panama faced pressure to crack down on irregular migration in recent years, as the number of migrants and asylum seekers travelling north hit record highs.
In fiscal year 2023, the United States reported 2.48 million “encounters” with migrants and asylum seekers at its southern border with Mexico.
That was a new high-water mark for the US, and it led to a political backlash, with immigration featuring prominently in the country’s general elections in 2024.
For instance, President-elect Donald Trump — the victor in the 2024 presidential race — has pledged to pursue a “mass deportation” campaign upon taking office on January 20.
Likewise, in Panama, 2023 broke records for migrants and asylum seekers navigating the Darien Gap.
An estimated 520,085 people passed through the perilous jungle, known for its steep terrain, swift rivers and criminal networks.
But in 2024, Panama’s immigration authorities saw a steep drop in the number of people risking their lives in the jungle. Some 302,203 crossed the Darien Gap last year.
The US has similarly seen falling numbers at its southern border. In the fiscal year 2024, US Customs and Border Protection documented 2.14 million irregular “encounters” with migrants and asylum seekers, down 14 percent.
November alone saw the lowest monthly total of irregular border crossings in the four years of US President Joe Biden’s term.
But the US has attempted to clamp down on irregular migration in recent months. Last year, Biden implemented stiff measures limiting asylum access to those who cross the US-Mexico border outside official channels.
Penalties included a five-year ban from the US and possible criminal prosecution.
Biden also threatened to suspend asylum petitions altogether if the average daily number of irregular border crossings reached 2,500 per day.
Critics warned these measures could violate international and US humanitarian law, by limiting the ability of asylum seekers to urgently flee persecution.
But supporters of the new policies argued they were necessary to rein in irregular migration.
The US has also pushed its allies in South and Central America to limit irregular migration northwards.
Panama and the US, for instance, signed an agreement in July to “close the passage of illegal migrants” through the Darien Gap, with the US offering to fund deportation flights and other logistics.
Approximately 1,548 migrants and asylum seekers have since been repatriated on US-backed deportation flights from Panama.
The US also established “Safe Mobility Offices” in countries like Costa Rica, Guatemala and Colombia in an effort to dissuade would-be migrants and asylum seekers from making the dangerous trek to the border.
Mulino revealed in December that at least 55 migrants and asylum seekers had died while navigating the Darien Gap in 2024, and an estimated 180 children were abandoned.
Given the inhospitable nature of the terrain, some bodies are never reported or found.
Critics point out that efforts to stamp out irregular migration often overlook the fundamental issues that spur migrants and asylum seekers to make life-threatening trips in the first place.
This past year, for instance, an estimated 69 percent of the migrants and asylum seekers documented in the Darien Gap were from Venezuela.
There, human rights experts warn of government abuses, particularly in the wake of a contested presidential race that saw 2,000 arrested and 23 killed in post-election protests.
Venezuela has also suffered from economic turmoil that has put access to basic supplies like food and medicine out of reach for many residents. Some 7.7 million people have fled the country.
