For a Few Days, Flow of Migrants to U.S. Halted in Key Jungle Corridor
BOGOTÁ, Colombia—All this week, the news couldn’t have been brighter for Biden administration officials trying to slow migration through the jungle that connects South America with Central America, an essential corridor for would-be immigrants heading to the U.S. A Colombian crackdown on boats that are indispensable in getting migrants to the Darién Gap had left several hundred migrants stranded and far from its trails, local officials and businesses who cater to migrants said.
More than 520,000 people had traversed those footpaths in 2023 to get to Panama—completing a crucial stage en route to the U.S.—but by late this week, the numbers passing through had slowed to a trickle. “Everything has been stopped for all the travelers," Edilberto Escobar, who makes a living guiding migrants through the Darién, said by phone from the town of Acandí near the Darién.
“This affects us a lot because this is a source of work for everyone, from those who sell boots [to migrants] to those who are guides." The development proved short-lived, though, after Colombian government officials and the owners of the boat companies agreed Thursday to permit the boats to once again transport migrants as of 6 a.m. Friday.
The captains of the boats must now ensure that the migrants—people from as near as Venezuela and as far away as China—have filled out transit documents on a Colombian government online app before boarding for transport across the Gulf of Urabá. American authorities had said in recent days they wanted to go after bus, plane and boat companies that knowingly transport undocumented migrants in Latin America, to slow the stream of migrants far from the southwestern border.
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