From January to June 2024, a total of 178,043 people crossed the Darién Gap as irregular migrants.

This figure represents an increase in the flow compared to the same period last year, according to ”Operation Controlled Flow of Irregular Migrants”, carried out by the National Migration Service (SNM).

Until the beginning of June of last year, the SNM had reported the irregular entry of 166 thousand people, of which about 20% were boys and girls, mostly from South America.

Numerous organizations have warned about the dangers of crossing the gap, however, thousands of people choose to cross it in search of better opportunities outside their homelands. Most do so with the intention of reaching the United States.

Every week, hundreds of migrants leave the temporary camps in Darién to continue on their way to the border with Costa Rica.

In the last week, from June 6-9, 2024, 129 buses traveled to Costa Rica, reporting the departure of 6 thousand people from the country.

The elected president, José Raúl Mulino, has reiterated on several occasions the need to close the irregular border crossing.

According to the designated Minister of Security, Frank Ábrego, the way to make the closure viable is by implementing checkpoints where migrants can be detained, and then proceed with their repatriation.

With less than a month until the government transition, the SNM has maintained the campaign ”Darién is not a route”, with which it sought to stop the crisis that reached its zenith in 2023, when half a million people crossed the jungle .

Until June 2024, the main nationalities of those who cross the plug were Venezuelan, Ecuadorian and Haitian.