In an effort to curb the influx of people and safeguard them from organized crime, Panama and Colombia agreed on Friday to permit the controlled transit of unauthorized migrants aiming to reach the United States.
Next week, the two countries will establish a set of limits for the number of migrants each can accept.
49,000 migrants have crossed the border between Colombia and Panama so far this year, more than in the previous four years combined, fleeing the epidemic, poverty, and violence in their native countries.
Colombian Vice President and Foreign Minister Marta Lucia Ramirez and Panamanian Foreign Minister Erika Mouynes, as well as other ministers and high security officials, met in the town of Meteti in southern Panama to reach an agreement.
Another Panamanian group is scheduled to fly to Colombia on Monday “to decide a number, a quota of migrants” who may “be received in a secure and orderly manner by the Panamanian side,” according to Mouynes.
“We’ll regularize a contingent or a daily quantity of persons who wish to transit through a single point, who have a single point of arrival in Panama,” Ramirez continued.
Both countries will also look into alternative modes of transportation to avoid migrants having to cross the Darien Gap, a dangerous jungle region.
Colombia and Panama have agreed to coordinate police and judicial cooperation to prevent criminal networks from exploiting unauthorized migrants for profit.
The two countries will seek to join a regional quota deal that would allow for the regulated passage of migrants at an upcoming regional meeting that will include the United States.
The influx of migrants threatens to overrun the care centers established by Panamanian officials to care for them once they pass through the Darien Gap.
Thousands of migrants, including juveniles and pregnant women, have been stranded in the Colombian port town of Necocli for many weeks while they wait for boats to enter Panama.
The Gulf of Uraba, off Colombia’s northern coast, is a major transit site for refugees from neighbouring Latin American countries, as well as Africa and Asia.
