David (Panama), September 1 (EFE). – Senior officials from Panama and Costa Rica began a meeting this Friday near their shared border to agree on “pragmatic” measures against the wave of irregular migrants crossing both countries on their way to the North America.
The foreign and security ministers of both nations and other officials are meeting in the city of David, the capital of the Panamanian province of Chiriquí, which borders Costa Rica and is 445 kilometers from the Panamanian capital.
“The bilateral meeting will focus on the current immigration situation, which has reached record levels with the number of irregular migrant entries reaching “over 800,000” since 2009, Panama’s Ministry of Public Security said.
Costa Rica’s Foreign Minister Arnoldo André Tinoco said irregular migration flows are “elements that affect today’s democracies.”
“We are here to be, as our president (Costa Rican Rodrigo Chaves) says, pragmatic but above all hyper-pragmatic in the agreements that we adopt here,” Tinoco added.
Panama’s Foreign Minister Janaina Tewanei recalled that integration has historically marked relations with Costa Rica and assured that she hoped Friday’s meeting would lead to an “open dialogue” on irregular migration and other issues of bilateral interest .
This high-profile event is related to the current migration outbreak, as more than 331,000 people have arrived in Panama so far this year after crossing the Darién jungle, the inhospitable natural border with Colombia, mainly on their journey to the United States .
In August alone, 79,455 migrants crossed this jungle, an unprecedented number in a single month, leaving humanitarian organizations in the Darién overwhelmed.
A “destructible ecological footprint”
“It is a too intense flow that brings consequences and they are not positive for the Darién,” such as the contamination of this Panamanian national park, Panamanian Public Security Minister Juan Manuel Pino said Thursday.
According to Panama’s presidency, “the migration crisis, with the accumulation of 9,000 tons of garbage on the jungle border” with Colombia, “leaves an indelible ecological footprint and it will take 60 years to restore and eliminate it.”
According to travellers’ accounts, migrants, in many cases entire families with children and even older adults, face all sorts of dangers in the jungle, including assault and rape, and many die.
Panama has said it will announce new measures on its border with Colombia next week amid the avalanche of migrants and has accused South American countries of turning their backs on the problem. EFE
gf-mr/adl/jfu
(Photo)(Video)