International Migration (Hati): Focus on the new migration measures at the Colombian-Panamanian border of Darien

Haitians would represent the third nationality, behind Venezuelans and Ecuadorians, having transited through the inhospitable and dangerous Darien route in the year 2023, according to Panamanian migration authorities.

By Wooldy Edson Louidor

Bogota (Colombia), July 4, 2024 [AlterPresse] — Although it was announced a few days ago by the new head of state of Panama, José Raúl Mulino, particularly during his first official visit to his country’s border with Colombia in Darien [[1] on Friday, June 28, 2024, the news of the closure of the Darien border (between Panama and Colombia) came as no surprise, according to information gathered by the online agency AlterPresse.

However, this decision comes as a cold shower.

“Panama will no longer be a transit country for illegal immigrants” (those without papers), José Raúl Mulino declared solemnly and controversially in his presidential inauguration speech on Monday, July 1, 2024.

It’s as if Panama is finally reclaiming its national sovereignty in this Darien jungle. [[2] and its new president was preparing to wage a merciless war against the country’s enemies, including migrants in transit, including women and children.

Furthermore, on the same day of his official inauguration, Monday, July 1, 2024 for a 5-year presidential term (until July 1, 2029), José Raúl Mulino signed a memorandum of understanding with the US administration, aimed at “managing irregular migration in the region”, including through the “implementation of a repatriation flight program” [[3] the document underlines.

What is the context of this tough speech by the new Panamanian president against migration and this memorandum of understanding?

What are the implications of this solemn Panamanian-US act for the migrants themselves and for other countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, including Haiti?
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Place of migration in the government program of the new Panamanian president

The inauguration speech of the new Panamanian head of state, on Monday, July 1, 2024, begins with a reference to the major problems and challenges that await his government for the next five years (2024-2029) [[4] .

Among these problems, at the top of the list is so-called “illegal” migration.

More specifically, migration would be, according to José Raúl Mulino, the third major problem of Panama, surpassed only by the “loss of the economy” that has impoverished the Panamanian population and also the “political persecutions” systematically directed against political adversaries, converted by the previous regime into enemies to be defeated.

This so-called “illegal” migration into the Darien jungle would, in turn, be the source of serious complications for the country, including the presence of transnational organized crime, linked to drug and migrant trafficking, and environmental contamination.

In addition, it would represent a great challenge to national security in Panama, particularly for the naval and land armed forces, in addition to the enormous budget deficits it causes, in terms of public funds disbursed and used for the purposes of migratory management of foreigners in transit.

This contextualization of the investiture speech allows us to situate, particularly in his government program, the validity of the new head of state’s insistence on the need for his country to face “massive illegal migration” as a national problem and, at the same time, to call on international solidarity to put an end to both the humanitarian tragedy suffered by migrants in transit and the environmental pollution affecting this “lung of the world” that is the Darien jungle.

Contradiction between repatriation measures and the requirement of international protection

Furthermore, the memorandum of understanding between the two governments of Panama and the United States is part of the global strategy of the United States of America, aimed at externalizing the Colombian-Panamanian border, through which, in the year 2023, 520,085 thousand migrants from all over the world, including the Caribbean, Africa and Asia, will have passed through, seeking to reach US soil.

This outsourcing would consist, for the United States, in participating, actively and jointly with the Panamanian and Colombian migratory authorities, in the control of this border, with a view to containing migratory flows, particularly upstream.

Furthermore, according to Panamanian migration authorities [[5] 46,422 Haitians would have crossed the Darien jungle, irregularly, during the year 2023.

Haitians would represent the third nationality having transited by this inhospitable and dangerous route, behind Venezuelans (328,650) and Ecuadorians (57,250) [[6] .

These globalized migratory flows in transit constitute a very significant volume of irregular migration, which, according to the current US Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, “is a regional challenge, which requires a regional response”, while “the United States continues to work to protect its borders and repatriate individuals, who are not legally authorized to reside in the country [[7] “, underlines the senior official of the administration of Joseph Robinette Biden, known as Joe Biden.

Why does the memorandum of understanding insist on the US decision to help the Panamanian government, through a special program, to repatriate irregular migrants?

Why repatriations as a key point of this memorandum?

The Los Angeles Declaration on Migration and Protection, signed on June 10, 2020 by 21 countries of the Americas, including Haiti

US invokes Los Angeles Declaration on Migration and Protection [[8] signed on June 10, 2020, on the sidelines of the Ninth Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Americas, by 21 countries of the American continent, including Haiti.

This joint declaration would constitute the basis on which the Memorandum of Understanding of July 1, 2024 is based, since this document laid the foundations, oriented towards “carrying out coordinated actions to promote stability, broadening legal channels and offering individuals alternatives to be able to stay where they are, and to address, in a humane way, the problem of borders throughout the continent” [[9] .

However, this declaration – which seeks to “create conditions favourable to safe, orderly, humane and regular migration” – also insists on the obligation of States to allow foreigners to have access to international protection, including the right to asylum which prohibits repatriation, according to the now classic principle of non-refoulement.

This would constitute a flagrant contradiction between the repatriation measures, as announced indistinctly in the memorandum, and the requirements of international protection of the rights of refugees.

Geopolitical implications of the memorandum for other countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, including Haiti

It is worth noting that the new Panamanian president puts on an equal footing the negotiations around the Darien border with the United States administration and those with his Latin American counterparts.

For example, on the same day of the inauguration on Monday, July 1, 2024, José Raúl Mulino not only signed the aforementioned memorandum, but also met with his Colombian counterpart, Gustavo Petro, to discuss the binational agenda, of which migration in the Darien jungle would be a fundamental issue, according to statements reported by Colombian Chancellor Luis Gilberto Murillo on his X account. [[10] .

However, the language used by the new Panamanian president continues to raise criticism, due to its content considered hostile towards migrants.

For example, José Raúl Mulino criminalizes migration by talking about illegal migration and associating it with transnational organized crime, without providing any nuance or consideration for migrants in transit, including women and children, who face a difficult humanitarian situation in the Darien jungle.

This is all the more serious given that, at this time, the States and governments of Latin America and the Caribbean are committed – together with civil society, academia and other interest groups – to broaden and update, for this region, the political and legal framework for the international protection of displaced persons, refugees and migrants, in the context of the fortieth anniversary of the Cartagena Declaration on Refugees, adopted in November 1984. [[11] in Cartagena de Indias (Colombia), during the Colloquium on the International Protection of Refugees in Central America, Mexico and Panama.

This process, called “Proceso Cartagena+40”, led by the Chilean government and technically supported by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), should lead the states and governments of the region to develop and subscribe, soon in Santiago de Chile, to a Declaration and Plan of Action for the next ten years (2024-2034) around the protection mechanisms for displaced persons, refugees and migrants, to be implemented jointly throughout the Americas and Caribbean region.

In this Cartagena Declaration of 22 November 1984, the signatory States agreed, 40 years ago, on a broader definition of the concept of refugee, which “could not only encompass the elements of the 1951 Convention and the 1967 Protocol, but also extend to persons who have fled their country because their life, security or freedom were threatened by generalised violence, foreign aggression, internal conflicts, a massive violation of human rights or other circumstances which have seriously disturbed public order”.

In this sense, this memorandum of understanding of Monday, July 1, 2024, between Panama and the United States of America, could be considered a discordant note, on the part of the new Panamanian president José Raúl Mulino,

However, there is a regional concert, which aims to strengthen solidarity between the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean, and to create bilateral and multilateral channels of dialogue and joint mechanisms to face the challenges of migration, instead of appealing, as usual, to the great neighbor to the North, which almost always tends to put, in the foreground and above all, its migration agenda. [wel rc apr 04/07/2024 12:45]