Authorities in Colombia detained a number of boat captains, accusing them of bringing migrants to the jungle’s entry. In support of the inmates, the transport union has halted operations.
MEXICO CITY:
The arrest of multiple boat captains who were transporting migrants to the beginning of their trek through the forest has halted the daily flow of thousands of people through the perilous Darien Gap migration route.
This all started on Monday when two boat captains were apprehended by Colombian authorities in the northern city of Necoclí.
The 2,000 persons who, by official estimates, cross into the jungle every day in the hopes of reaching the United States were shut off when the corporations that employed them protested by suspending all transportation services.
Up to 8,000 individuals are already lining up to enter Panama as a result of this, according to confirmation provided on Thursday by the Ombudsman’s Office of Colombia. The government’s human rights monitor, the agency, has issued a warning, stating that the hoarding would “overwhelm the food supply, health system, among others.”
The head of the organization, Carlos Camargo Assis, stated, “We cannot wait for a breakdown that leads to the violation of the fundamental rights” of already vulnerable migratory populations.
The pandemonium has once again brought attention to how difficult it will be for authorities in the United States and Latin America to address the unprecedented volumes of migration and dismantle the growingly profitable migrant smuggling industry.
Colombia and other Latin American nations have come under pressure from US President Joe Biden to toughen up on regional migration that is making its way to the country’s southern border.
The Clan del Golfo, Colombia’s most potent drug trafficking organization, mostly controls the forests of the Darien Gap, which continue to be anarchic portions of the northward migratory route despite increased surveillance in many Latin American countries.
Over 500,000 individuals passed the Darien Gap in the past year, a large number of them were from Venezuela and other Latin American, African, and Asian nations. From there, migrants travel north through Mexico and Central America to the southern border of the United States, where 2.5 million migrants were apprehended by authorities in 2023.
On the day of the November 2024 US election, the massive migration has come back into focus thanks to visits to the Mexican border by former President Donald Trump and Vice President Joe Biden on Thursday.
The Attorney General’s Office said on Wednesday that the captured captains had been carrying over 150 migrants from Necoclí across a section of the Caribbean to another Colombian city, from where they were beginning their voyage north.
The captains were employed by two tourist transport firms, which the prosecution claimed were fronts for the transportation of migrants. The migrants paid between $140 and $300 per person to travel a short distance at sea.
A representative from the Attorney General’s Office, who wished to remain anonymous due to lack of authority to discuss the subject, claimed that these businesses take advantage of the vulnerability of migrants to enrich themselves.
“They charge them ridiculous sums of money to go without even providing the most basic security measures. In an interview with The Associated Press, the official claimed, “They packed them in like tinned sardines.” “They are being led astray and misled.”
According to him, the goal of the arrests was to “break the link” of the illegal migrant transport industry, which has grown increasingly profitable as a result of growing migration in the Americas, and to issue a warning to those involved in human smuggling.
But he expressed concern that when one trafficker is apprehended, “two more will turn up,” as the system in the Darien Gap is already so well-established.
Given the uncertainty surrounding the duration of the on-site travel suspension, the Ombudsman’s Office expressed concern that the situation might only worsen.
Three years earlier, the 20,000-person little town of Necoclí saw a similar backlog of almost 10,000 migrants, severely disrupting its daily operations.