The Darien improves its tools for managing extra-regional migration flows

Panama. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) held a capacity-building workshop for officials in the Darien border zone. The activity took place on September 10-12 and participants included the National Border Service (SENAFRONT), the National Migration Service (SNM), the Directorate of Judicial Investigation, the Human Trafficking Division of the National Police, and the Ministry of Health.

The workshop combined practical and theoretical sessions in which the participants learned recommended best practices for managing camps and mitigating conflict, managing and reporting cases, and identifying frauds and false documentation.

Part of the workshop discussed specific needs for equipment and personnel to be able to find migrants in the jungle and transport them to safe camps.  Current difficulties for adequately registering people and verifying their identities were also discussed.

Interactive sessions were held in which officials learned to identify bottlenecks and discussed ways to promote orderly migration. An important part of the training was focused on assistance to families and reception of irregular migrant children and adolescents.

The Darien is a densely forested zone between Colombia and Panama. It is known for being very difficult to cross and represents a break of over 100 km in the highway networks of Central and South America. As a result, it is an inhospitable and dangerous terrain, where thousands of migrants risk their lives each year.

In the first five months of 2019 alone, SENAFRONT reported the entry of over 11,000 migrants through the Darien. Many of these are from faraway countries such as India, Nepal, and Cameroon. The diversity of the population being served makes constant training a priority for migration personnel.

This workshop was held within the framework of the Regional Migration Program: Mesoamerica-The Caribbean, financed by the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration of the Department of State of the United States of America.