Takeaways from AP’s reporting on Chinese migrants who traverse the Darién Gap to reach the US

By ELLIOT SPAGAT and DIDI TANG
Associated Press

SAN DIEGO (AP) — The monthly number of Chinese migrants crossing through Panama’s Darién Gap jungle has risen this year as more people from the world’s most populous country look to immigrate to the U.S. The number has risen from 913 in January to 2,588 in September. For the first nine months of 2023, Panamanian immigration authorities registered 15,567 Chinese citizens crossing the Darién. By comparison, 2,005 Chinese people trekked through the jungle in 2022, and just 376 from 2010 to 2021. Chinese people were the fourth-highest nationality, after Venezuelans, Ecuadorians and Haitians, crossing the Darién during the first nine months of this year. Chinese migrants using this route fly to Ecuador and then make their way north to the U.S.-Mexico border.