The United States has allocated close to US$22 million dollars for humanitarian assistance for refugees and vulnerable migrants in Panama, the US embassy in the country said Monday.
Panama is the gateway to Central America from the south for irregular migrants from all over the world traveling to the United States.
The long Venezuelan crisis prompted this flow in 2022, when they arrived in Panama, many, plus 227,000 travelers in transit, an unprecedented number.
The Panamanian government affirms that the management of the crisis, which includes welcoming migrants in stations on its southern (Colombia) and northern (Costa Rica) borders – where it takes their biometric data and offers them health and food assistance – has cost some US$50 million dollars since 2020, and has asked the US for “support”.
“The United States government allocated close to US$18 million dollars, in 2022, for humanitarian assistance for refugees and vulnerable migrants in Panama. The figure was four times greater than the amount that Panama received in 2021 (4 million),” the US embassy said on Monday.
It explained that these “are delivered to international organizations that have humanitarian assistance programs in Panama, such as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, UNICEF, the International Organization for Migration (IOM), and the Pan-American Foundation for Development”.