The Darién Province is located on the eastern border of Panama, in it is the Darién National Park. The shared border between Panama and Colombia, is part of the route used by migrants to reach destinations in North America. This migratory route is known to be highly dangerous due to the geographical conditions of the dense tropical jungle, and the presence of organized crime, which increases the vulnerability of migrants who transit through the Darién. 

Faced with mobility-related challenges, the governments of Panama and Costa Rica established an agreement in 2018 to guarantee the passage of migrants in an orderly, regular, and safe manner called "Operation Controlled Flow of Migrants", which applies to specific nationalities. This agreement established that Costa Rica would periodically authorize the entry into its territory of a certain number of migrants, and that Panama should guarantee this process in an orderly manner.  

In this context, it was necessary that the transit population that arrived from Colombia into Panama in an irregular manner and that accumulated due to the limited number of authorized crossings to Costa Rica, be provided with temporary shelter until the transit could continue. 

The Operation Controlled Flow has not been officially reinstated since the border closures that began in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Migrants are crossing irregularly into Costa Rica through Paso Canoas.  

Currently, the Government of Panama provides humanitarian assistance and supports logistics for the daily mobilization of hundreds of migrants to its Migratory Reception Stations (ERM for its Spanish acronym) in the provinces of Darién (Lajas Blancas and San Vicente) and Chiriquí (Los Planes de Gualaca). The migrants enter through the communities of Bajo Chiquito and Canaán Membrillo, located in the Emberá-Wounaan indigenous region within the Darién Province in Panama and are transferred respectively to the different ERM. 

Given the need for information regarding this migratory flow, especially of information related to socioeconomic profile of migrants, information on migration routes and related risks, among others, IOM has implemented its Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM) tool, through a Flow Monitoring in the ERM located in the Darién province. In the following interactive dashboard, you can find information about the different characteristics of migrants that composed the flow in transit through Darién. 

To interact with the digital dashboard you can navigate the pages of the report, making use of the arrows located in the bottom bar. In this bar you will be able to know the page number in which it is located and the total number of pages that the report has. In addition, you can make use of the filters on “Migrant Reception Station” and “Date”, to customize your search. You can also get specific values by clicking on the variables in the charts.  

*Content available only in Spanish*