Panama installs barbed wire to block migrants traveling through the Darién Gap

Panama has placed barbed wire across several routes in the Darién Gap, the country’s Ministry of Public Security said in a statement Thursday, in a bid to block migrants making their way north.

Panama has placed barbed wire across several routes in the Darién Gap, the country’s Ministry of Public Security said in a statement Thursday, in a bid to block migrants making their way north. At least five passages near Panama’s border with Colombia have been shut using barbed wire installed by the country’s border agency (Senafront). Meanwhile, Panama’s navy is patrolling areas in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean. The government said the navy is instructed to stop and detain people traveling by boat with “irregular migrants” and to hand them over to police or immigration authorities from Colombia. On land, border authorities have closed irregular access areas with the goal of rerouting people through established border points. The United States and Panama signed an agreement this month on immigration issues that aimed to “close the passage of illegal migrants” through the Darién Gap. Panama’s President José Raúl Mulino has also vowed to stop the Central American country from being a transit route for migrants. “I will not allow Panama to be a path open to thousands of people who enter our country illegally supported by an entire international organization related to drug and human trafficking,” Mulino said at his swearing-in ceremony on July 1. Mulino visited the Darién Gap days before Thursday’s announcement, saying 300 border agents were going to be deployed to monitor the area and declaring that no one would enter Panamanian territory without a passport or a valid document.