Panama's former SENAFRONT director says the U.N. and its nonprofit partners made mass migration worse when they moved into his country.
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By Darlene McCormick Sanchez | February 22, 2024 Updated: February 24, 2024 PANAMA CITY—The former
director of Panama’s border patrol told The Epoch Times that the United
Nations’ migration agenda is behind the chaos at the U.S. southern border and
that U.N. partners are making things worse instead of better. Oriel Ortega, now a
security and defense consultant to Panamanian President Laurentino Cortizo,
said during a Feb. 22 interview that he saw a jump in migration in 2016, at
the same time that more nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) moved into
Panama. That increase corresponded with the U.N.’s
Global Compact for Safe, Orderly, and Regular Migration meeting in 2016. Two
years later, 152 nations—including Panama—voted in favor of the compact to manage global
migration. The United States voted against it. But under the U.N., the
migration process has been anything but orderly, Mr. Ortega said. “It’s completely opposite
right now,” he said through an interpreter. Documents show that in
2023, a record 500,000 migrants traveled through the dense jungle known as
the Darien Gap from Colombia into Panama. Migrants from around the world are
flying into South and Central America to start their journey because
countries such as Suriname and Ecuador don’t require a visa to enter. Their
final destination is the United States. The book “Weapons of Mass
Migration: Forced Displacement, Coercion, and Foreign Policy,” written
by Kelly Greenhill, suggests that weaker countries are using migration to
destabilize their more powerful adversaries. Joseph Humire is the executive director of
the Center for a Secure Free Society and an expert on unconventional warfare.
He told The Epoch Times that he believes that’s what Americans are seeing at
the U.S. southern border now. “This isn’t a conspiracy theory,” he said;
the “invasion” at the U.S. southern border is “strategic engineered
migration.” Mr. Ortega agreed that the NGOs have
“exacerbated” mass migration problems. “Instead of helping,
they’re being part of the problem,” he said. “It’s not the migrants
themselves that are creating a national threat; it is the organized crime,
and it is these international organizations.” At the Lajas Blancas camp in Panama, migrants have access to a number of large maps provided by NGOs that display detailed migration routes heading to the United States. One map is from HIAS, an NGO founded as the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, which recently received $11 million from the United States in two grants awarded for Latin American migrants. Instead of curtailing mass migration, they are facilitating it, he said. International organizations
even filed lawsuits against Panama, alleging human rights violations for
holding 2,500 migrants from Haiti. But Mr. Ortega said the migrants were only
being held “because of unsafe conditions,” but he didn’t elaborate. While the U.N. has aided migrants for decades,
the scope of its operation has dramatically expanded, with
the number of illegal immigrants entering the United States surging. Nearly $1.3 billion of U.S.
taxpayer money was given to the U.N. and other agencies assisting migrants in
2023, according to a government spending database. The International
Organization for Migration (IOM), the U.N.’s migration arm, is paying for the
expansion of camps, including ones near the Darien Gap, one in Lajas Blancas,
and another new facility near camp Bajo Chiquito, Mr. Ortega said. MORE AT LINK https://www.theepochtimes.com/article/former-panama-border-chief-un-is-behind-the-chaos-at-u-s-mexico-border-5593034?utm_source=PR_article_paid&utm_medium=email&est=%2F3tmLh3jcf%2BM%2BfSRLu2%2B4%2BTlO2CAO3%2FGmX2Uu1clywx5By7sqRls1XkVrK2HaJffZNES  |