Nearly 30,000 Haitian migrants have already crossed the US-Mexico border in recent weeks, but Panama’s foreign minister says many more are on the way – and she has been sounding the alarm bells for months.
In a new interview with Axios, Foreign Minister Erika Mouynes said that since the start of 2021 more than 85,000 Haitians have crossed Panama and that she thinks “they are all headed for the United States” .
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“We have engaged with every authority we can think of, that we can meet, to say, ‘Please, let’s watch this,’” Mouynes said at the outlet.
The Haitians came from Colombia, traversed the dangerous jungles of Darién Gap to Panama before heading north through Central America and Mexico to the United States. solve the problem, and she thought it was “shocking” that it hadn’t happened sooner.
Mouynes said she also met with members of Congress and DHS secretary Alejandro Mayorkas earlier this week.
In this September 20, 2021 file photo, migrants, many from Haiti, board a bus after being treated and released after spending time in a makeshift camp near the international bridge in Del Rio , in Texas. (AP Photo / Eric Gay, file)
(AP Photo / Eric Gay, file)
Fox News contacted the Department of Homeland Security for comment, but did not immediately respond.
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Mouynes told Axios that she wanted to see additional meetings between the United States and other countries where they could develop plans to better control the volume of people crossing their respective borders. She said Haiti must also be involved in order to get to the root of the problem.
“We all have a role to play in this file, and the regional approach is the right approach,” she said. “It is impossible for Panama to solve it on its own.”
In addition to the 85,000 people who have already traveled to Panama and beyond, Mouynes said another 30,000 were waiting in Colombia when Panama was unable to take them.
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“When we receive them from the Panamanian side, they are malnourished. The children are in a terrible state, so even getting them back to a healthy state takes time,” she said.
Mayorkas told Fox News on Sunday that the vast majority of migrants who entered the country have been released in the United States. the processing of their files.
