Panama warns of looming Haitian migrant wave, tens of thousands on the way

Nearly 30,000 Haitian migrants have already made their way over the U.S.-Mexico borderin recent weeks, but Panama's foreign minister says far more are on their way – and she has been sounding the alarm for months.

In a new interview with Axios, Foreign Minister Erika Mouynes said that since the beginning of 2021 more than 85,000 Haitians have crossed through Panama and that she believes "they all are heading toward the U.S."

"We've engaged with every single authority that we can think of, that we can come across, to say, 'Please, let's pay attention to this,'" Mouynes told the outlet.

The Haitians have been coming from Colombia, traveling through the dangerous Darién Gap jungles into Panama before making their way northward through Central American and Mexico to to the U.S. Mouynes said senior officials from South American countries, Mexico, Canada and the U.S. met in August to address the issue, and she thought it was "shocking" that this had not happened sooner.