In these posts — most recently on August 12 — we have frequently commented on the curiously swift rise of illegal Chinese migrants approaching the US border by treking through the Darien Gap in Panama. While the government in Washington seems unconcerned by the increase — from a total of only 296 in the entire decade of 2010-2019 to 12,070 so far this year — the new government in Panama has taken notice and is taking steps to thwart the influx.
Panama’s new president, José Raúl Mulino, had campaigned against hordes of migrants passing through his country. Once taking office on July 1, he ordered barbed wire fences to be installed blocking some of the trail’s routes and signed an agreement with the US to establish U.S.-funded deportation flights. Those flights were supposed to start in August, though Washington has been slow in implementing them. Mulino also has launched deportation flight programs to China, India, Ecuador, and Colombia.
Nevertheless, he announced on September 19 that Panamanian authorities have detected an increase in US-bound Chinese migrants using the Gap. In a press conference, he said:
We have gone down in terms of [total migrant flow through the Darién Gap], but citizens from Nepal and China appeared in greater numbers in the last few entries.
As a consequence, Mulino says he is negotiating with Beijing to reach an agreement to deport Chinese nationals caught passing through the Gap. Whether he’ll have more luck with the Chinese government than the American remains to be seen.
For more, see Breitbart News.