Migrants in Panama hope to continue on to the U.S.

Panama has recently moved hundreds of migrants stranded within its borders to its Norrn border with Costa Rica.

small Central American country has continued to receive new waves of migrants who are encouraged to leave ir homes, in part, because of new ministration in US.

migrants, many of m Haitians with young children, have been moved by buses from a camp in San Vicente, in Darien province to South, bordering Colombia, to anor migrant reception post in Chiriqui province in North, bordering Costa Rica.

National Migration Service told Associated Press that since January 29 some 551 migrants have left Darien and moved to border with Costa Rica.

That route h been suspended after Panama reported first cases of coronavirus in March 2020 and closed its borders to contain pandemic.

Meanwhile, many migrants in San Vicente - which opened its doors in September 2020 - h traversed dangerous Darien jungle in last few days or weeks.

Ors in San Vicente camp recently completed quarantine or were tested for COVID-19 in or camps.

As of Tuesday, re were 375 migrants in tents and housing units with drinking water which were set up with help of UN refugee agency (UNHCR) and International Organization for Migration (IOM).

Some 1,000 people remain in Darien, 276 of whom arrived Monday night after dangerous days-long journey.

According to local authorities and complaints from migrants mselves, gangs of assailants, rapists, and human and drug traffickers operate freely inside jungle.

"Thieves took my backpack with passports here in Panama," said Wisnel Olly, a 41-year-old Haitian migrant who recently arrived in San Vicente with his wife Bien Aimé, and ir four-month-old twin boys Robens and Robenson, who were born in Chile, where couple lived for two years.

Idiam Osorio, a technical specialist of International Organization for Migration (IOM), feels one of reasons pushing flow of migrants northward is linked to change of government in United States.

She said y have to regularly move migrants between camps to prevent contagions.

Panama announced reopening of its land borders on January 29, prompting hundreds of migrants to immediately cross porous Colombian-Panamanian border.

Some 800 more migrants are expected to cross Darien from Colombia in coming days, according to Panama's National Border Service.