Panama analyzes taking Venezuelan migrants to the border between Colombia and Venezuela

The Panama Government studies the «possibilities» of transferring Venezuelan migrants to the Colombian city of Cúcuta, bordering Venezuela, after they arrive in an «reverse flow» from the north to the south of the contine USA, the Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino reported Thursday.

«Shipping to Venezuela, as I said, is not feasible from Panama by us. We have no contact with the Venezuelan government. However, having given a repatriation from the United States (…) we are rehearsing possibilities so that now with that inverse flow we can fly them from Panama to Cúcuta, which is Colombian territory, and establish from there the transit, as appropriate and can, towards Venezuela«Mulino said at his weekly press conference.

This week the Panamanian authorities announced that they were analyzing the possible ways to transfer Venezuelan migrants directly to their country or through a third party, since there are no diplomatic relations between the two nations.

Panama and Venezuela maintain their suspended diplomatic relations as well as their closed airspace after the Central American country recognized the opposition leader Edmundo González Urrutia as the «elected president» and considers fraudulent elections in Venezuela.

Venezuelans have been the majority group among migrants who cross the jungle of Darién, the border between Panama and Colombia, to reach North America in search of better living conditions.

In addition, despite the fact that the Mulino administration implemented migratory policies to lower the flow through that jungle to minimal numbers, including repatriation flights financed by the United States, Venezuelans were not affected, since there were no bilateral relations with Venezuela.

«Now we have the flow problem upside down»
But given the migratory policies of the Donald Trump government, which allow raids and an increase in deportations, the migratory flow is now produced from north to south.

«However, we now have the problem of the back upside down, the opposite flow, those who have been returning from the north,» Mulino said Thursday.

Given this, Panama and Costa Rica agreed last Tuesday to face that new reverse migratory flow, which include taking these migrants to shelters installed on the common borders and in the Darién, bordering Colombia, to later repatriate them «by Air or maritime via to their countries of origin, ”according to Panamanian Security Minister Frank Abrego.

Those flights, said the leader of the Panama Security portfolio, would be made «in coordination with the memorandum of understanding signed with the United States», so that the American country costs those displacements.

This Thursday, in addition, the Panamanian president announced that 119 migrants of «the most diverse nationalities of the world» deported by the United States arrived on the eve to later return them on flights paid by the US to their countries of origin from Panama, which will exercise of «bridge» for those returns.

These migrants will be «temporarily» in a hotel and «from there they move to a kind of shelter in San Vicente (in the province of Darién, border with Colombia)», where the Panamanian authorities expect to «take them out as soon as possible.»

Flights would be made from an air track located in one of the urban areas of Darién, which is used by Panama Security Forces.

Previously, on February 2, Mulino proposed to the US Secretary of State of the bilateral agreement for repatriation flights. EFE