Panama will investigate alleged sexual abuse of migrants by officials

The government of Panama will investigate alleged sexual abuse of irregular migrants by Panamanian officials to facilitate their transfer to Costa Rica, after a UN rapporteur published these alleged cases in a Spanish newspaper

The Ministry of Security assured in a statement that if there are indications or formal complaints, “the government of Panama will carry out the pertinent investigations until the last consequences.”

The Panamanian government’s reaction comes after the Spanish newspaper El País published a UN document containing “serious humiliations that would have been committed by officials of the National Migration Service and the National Border Service.”

According to the document, officials from the San Vicente Migrant Reception Station, in the province of Darién, on the border with Colombia, requested “sexual exchanges from women and girls” who lack money to “face transportation costs” from that center to the border with Costa Rica.

According to El País, there are also complaints about “hard labor” to be able to pay the 40 dollars that this trip costs.

However, the Panamanian government indicated that there is “no” formal complaint.

The competent authorities have addressed “every complaint filed” by the migrants and “in none of these has there been any mention of the participation of Panamanian public officials” in these alleged events, the official note indicated.

The Panamanian government also rejected “the accusations that try to distort humanitarian work.”

The Darien jungle it has become a corridor for irregular migration from South America trying to reach the United States through Central America.

This jungle border between Panama and Colombia, 266 km long and 575,000 hectares in area, is a route fraught with dangers, such as wild animals, mighty rivers and criminal groups.

Despite this, and according to data from the Panamanian government, in 2022 248,000 people passed through the Darién, a figure that pulverized the records of the previous year, when 133,000 migrants made the journey.

They are mostly Venezuelans, although there are also Ecuadorians, Haitians and Cubans, as well as Africans and Asians.

To alleviate the situation, the Panamanian government, in conjunction with different United Nations agencies and other international organizations, has set up several camps for the humanitarian assistance to migrants.