President Cortizo calls at the UN on the international community to face the challenge of irregular migration.

The President of the Republic, Laurentino Cortizo Cohen, called on the international community "to make, as soon as possible, a joint effort, with strategies and resources to anticipate a regional humanitarian crisis of serious proportions" in the face of the challenge of the irregular migration faced by various nations in the region.

 

 In his speech at the seventy-sixth General Assembly of the United Nations (UN), in New York, the Panamanian president detailed the actions taken by his Government during the pandemic and the post-pandemic stage to lay the foundations for profound structural transformations , as were the national dialogue called Pact of the Bicentennial: Closing Gaps, the Panama Solidario Plan and the successful vaccination program against Covid-19.

 

One of the challenges that many nations face is irregular migration, said the president, who specified that so far in 2021, more than 80,000 irregular migrants have crossed Panamanian territory.

 

Most of these migrants, coming from the Caribbean and Africa, come to visit several countries in difficult conditions, said Cortizo Cohen, who pointed out that Panama, “in a responsible manner, respectful of human rights, provides dignified treatment to these migrants and offers, for the first time in his journey, temporary shelter, medical assistance and food. We have dedicated an important part of our limited resources to these tasks ”, the president stressed.

 

He said that the challenge of migration is “everyone's responsibility”, for which he called on the international community to urgently face the problem with strategies and resources, in order to anticipate a regional humanitarian crisis of serious proportions.

 

Cortizo Cohen indicated to the UN Assembly that, in the pandemic, Panama opted to build a sustainable and inclusive future, and for this, even in the midst of the crisis, the Government called for a national dialogue in order to make the right decisions. that last beyond the term of a government.