In this month’s immigration update, we find 464 foreigners held & deported from Panama so far this  year.  We check in on the Ombudsman meeting held in Panama. We take a peek at comments made about the migrant caravan from Central America that are now in Mexico. And we then finish with a look at the myriad of options for residency in Panama – the provinces of Panama.

Immigration update

So far this year, the immigration department has retained over 3,000 foreigners and detailed at least 464 home for overstaying and other irregularities in their paperwork.  Most of these workers were either from Colombia or Venezuela.  The immigration department notes that over the Christmas holidays they will be stepping up on their investigations and expect to capture more illegal immigrants.

In November, the immigration department announced the “go live” of it’s mobile app: MigApp.  This online application offers foreigners information in Spanish, English & French regarding:

• government services
• entities which protect immigrant rights – governmental, private & community
• numbers & addresses of consulates & embassies
• immigration call cneters
• relevant information regarding money transfers to other countries.

During November, Panama was also host to “Conferencia Regional sobre Migración, CRM” – the regional immigration conference.  This Conference (covering North & Central America as well as the Caribbean) looked at mechanisms to address current immigration issues the region is facing.  The principal matters on the table were the migrant caravan from Central America to the United States and the waves of Venezuelan refugees that are arriving at different countries throughout the region.

At the same time, another meeting was held in Peru between various states of Latin America, discussing mass migration and a humanitarian focus that this needs to take.  The countries represented were: Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Chile, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Panama, Portugal and Uruguay. The principal focus during this conference were the coordination between the various government institutions and control systems in place.

Reactions – the migrant caravan

Panama has, to some extent, ignored the migrant caravan that left Honduras & El Salvador, heading north in recent weeks.  “Not our problem”, even though the issue has been touched on in recent conferences (outlined above).  However, last week a newspaper in the US published an article which got Panamanians attention. This indicated that the caravan should turn its attention south, rather than north. That these immigrants try their luck in Panama, rather than the US.  See, for example: https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/11/central-american-migrants-should-caravan-to-panama/.  While this article may have gone virtually unnoticed in the US, suddenly Panamanians jumped all over the issue.

• “we don’t want them here”
• “we’ve already got enough refugees from Venezuela”

Panama provinces

This month we will be publishing a series on the provinces of Panama – what life in each province is like.  This will be 5 blog posts, covering:

1. Bocas del Toro & Chiriqui
   1. Changuinola, Almirante, Bocas Island & other islands
   2. David, Boquete, Volcan, Boca Chica & Las Lajas
2. Coclé & Panamá Oeste
   1. Penonomé, Río Hato/Antón & La Pintada
   2. Coronado, San Carlos, Chame & Altos del María, Chorrera, Panamá Pacífico & Veracruz
3. Panamá & Colón
   1. Clayton/Albrook/ciudad del Saber, Santa María/Costa Sur/Costa del Este, Cerro Azul, & Panama City central
   2. Colón, Costa Arriba & Costa Abajo
4. Herrara & Los Santos
   1. Chitré
   2. Las Tablas, Pedasi & Venao
5. Veraguas & Darien
   1. Santiago, Mariato (west coast)
   2. Reforestation, plantations & reserves

The purpose of these blog posts will be to give you an idea of what each area has to offer, why people may move them, highlight some of the businesses that are operating there and most commonly known, and highlight some of the challenges that you may encounter when moving to distinct areas of the country.

For more information regarding immigration to Panama, please do not hesitate to contact Joan Villanueva.