He promised to close this ＂hot＂ smuggling route to the United States.

Original Ailifen Global Times

Panama’s president-elect announced the closure of the "hot" smuggling route to avoid illegal immigrants crossing the risk.

Panama’s immigration policy is about to change dramatically. President-elect Jose Raú l Moulinot promised that he would close a "hot" illegal immigrant smuggling route to the United States through the country. According to the Associated Press reported on the 11th, the Darien Canyon in Panama is the only land passage from South America to the United States. According to data released by Panama, more than 500,000 people crossed this "jungle of death" to the US-Mexico border last year.

"Panama and Darien Canyon are not transit routes, they are our borders." After winning the election, 64-year-old Moulinot said that "the dangerous journey in Darien Canyon has no reason to exist" and he would try to end it. Moulinot was elected President of the Panamanian Republic with 34% of the vote in the presidential election held this month, and he will take office in July this year. Earlier, he also expressed this view during the campaign.

According to the report, under the pressure of the US government, Mexico and other countries have strengthened visa restrictions on immigrants from Venezuela, Peru and other countries to prevent illegal immigrants from flying to their own countries and then going to the US border. This makes a large number of illegal immigrants can only choose the land route and walk through the jungle of Darien Canyon. This is a dangerous route, and the cases of immigrants being sexually assaulted continue to increase. Some immigrants are even robbed and killed on the way, while others drown in fast-flowing rivers. Even so, nearly 150,000 immigrants have entered Panama through the jungle of Darien Canyon so far this year.

According to The New York Times’s previous report, from the moment illegal immigrants entered the jungle, an industrial chain began to operate, and every step in the jungle (boat, guide, package, etc.) required money. Although the United States, Colombia and Panama signed an agreement in April last year to stop the illegal flow of people in the Darien Gorge, there are still illegal immigrants crossing the river.

In an interview with local media, Moulinot said that the way to ban this illegal immigration route is not to set up physical obstacles. "As long as we start to take measures to expel illegal immigrants immediately, people’s interest in crossing the border illegally will decrease.". Panamanian security expert Alonso said, "This will be a complete change in Panama’s immigration policy, which can avoid more deaths and organized crimes using this route." At the same time, he said that how to implement relevant measures on an open border is a challenge.

Audit | Gao Lei

Editor | Xu Luming

Proofreading | Zhou Yang

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Original title: "This" hot "smuggling route to the United States, he promised to close"

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