Panama says migrant jungle crossings fell 41% in 2024

Following an agreement signed with Washington in July, Panama has closed several routes in the Darien region and deported more than 1,500 migrants on flights to Colombia, Ecuador and India with US financial support.

"We have achieved a 41-percent reduction in the flow of migrants crossing the Darien jungle," President Jose Raul Mulino said in a speech to Congress.

"We work every day to ensure that illegal migration does not reach (Panama City) or the rest of the country," he added.

The remarks came less than three weeks before US President-elect Donald Trump takes office, having vowed mass deportations of migrants without papers.

Despite dangers including fast-flowing rivers, wild animals and criminal gangs, the Darien is a key corridor for Venezuelan and other migrants traveling overland from South America through Central America and Mexico in the hope of reaching the United States.

According to Panamanian immigration authorities, 302,203 people crossed the Darien in 2024, compared with 520,085 in 2023.

Mulino said on December 19 that at least 55 migrants had died and 180 children had been abandoned while making the crossing in 2024.

Panamanian authorities suspect that the death toll may be higher, as many bodies cannot be recovered from the inaccessible jungle.