PANAMA CITY, Aug 4 (Reuters) - The head of Panama's migration agency lashed out at Colombia on Friday, slamming its southern neighbor for failure to help control the flow of mostly U.S.-bound migrants passing through the dangerous Darien Gap amid a surge of people traveling north.
"For Panama, this is a crisis, but unfortunately with Colombia we have not been able to reach any kind of understanding," Gozaine said in a statement released on Friday.
The dense tropical jungle of the 60-mile (97-km) Darien Gap links Panama and Colombia, covering a missing section on the Pan-American highway, which stretches from Alaska to Argentina.
Late last month, Panama's security ministry released data showing that the number of individual crossings of the Darien Gap reached an all-time high of nearly 250,000 in the first seven months of the year.
"The only thing that Panama can do is manage the flow and permit (migrants) to keep traveling north and try to minimize the damage to Panama," she said.
Persons:
Samira Gozaine, Gozaine, Elida Moreno, David Alire Garcia, Tom Hogue
Organizations:
PANAMA CITY, Panamanian, Pan, Thomson
Locations:
PANAMA, Colombia, Panama, Darien, Alaska, Argentina, United States