Colombia, Panama to work together on migrant overflow, ministers say

FILE PHOTO: Colombia's presidential candidate Marta Lucia Ramirez speaks during a forum organized by Thomson Reuters in Bogota, Colombia, October 9, 2017. REUTERS/Jaime Saldarriaga

PANAMA CITY (Reuters) - Colombia and Panama's foreign ministers said on Friday they will work together to process and organize thousands of migrants stranded for long periods in northern Colombia as they make their way northward and request support for the efforts from destination countries like the United States and Canada.

Some 10,000 migrants - most of them Haitian but also from Cuba and various African countries - are stuck in Necocli, in Colombia's Antioquia province, waiting for scarce boat transport toward Panama's dangerous Darien Gap region, which many will cross on foot.