Tourists breeze past Hattian migrants playing soccer on a Colombia beach  

Photographs show brief moments of normalcy as Haitian migrants try to make their way to the United States.

Images captured Sunday show tourists wondering about a Colombian beach as Haitian migrants play soccer while they wait to embark for the dangerous Darien jungle and begin their journey to the US. 

Some Haitians were seen playing games, including dominoes, with fellow Venezuelan travelers who are also hoping to seek asylum in the U.S.

The newly released images come as thousands more Haitian migrants are embarking on a perilous journey through Latin America to reach the US, after US officials cleared out an encampment nearly 17,000 strong outside Del Rio, Texas last week. 

Up to 4,000 Haitian migrants have already crossed the Darien Gap in Panama along the Colombian border, a roadless, 66-mile stretch of treacherous jungle, Panamanian government sources tell Reuters. Some of them wait in camps in Mexico before continuing their journey.  

Meanwhile, another 16,000 wait at a northern Colombian border town, Necocli, waiting for their shot to jump on a boat to take them to the Darien Gap, where smugglers will guide them north through one of the most inhospitable regions in Latin America. 

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas admitted on Sunday that 12,000 Haitian migrants have been released into the U.S. He claims that number could go up as 5,000 other cases are still being processed. 

Photographs released Monday show tourists and Haitian migrants share a beach in Necocli, Colombia over the weekend.

Migrants are seen enjoying the beach as they remain stranded waiting for boats to cross into neighboring Panama on their way to the U.S.

They are finding ways to unwind as they wait for space on boats that cross will to the other side of the Gulf of Uraba, the end of Colombia, where some 17,000 people wait to continue their way to North America. 

Only 500 people each day can board on the boats that leave them in Acandi - a town in northern Columbia - to begin their journey through the Darien Gap, which separates Colombia from Panama. 

The photos from the beach paint a strikingly different narrative than images showing caravans of migrants attempting to cross through jungles, rivers and other dangerous conditions.

While 16,000 people remain in Necocli waiting for smugglers to help them cross through 'one of the most dangerous and impassable regions of Latin America,' approximately 4,000 migrants have passed through Panama and are en route to the U.S., The Hill reported on Monday.

The group is largely comprised of Haitians, but also includes some people from Cuba, Venezuela and other nations.

Images shared over the weekend show migrants hiking through the jungle and wadding across waters.

Men, women and children were seen carrying their minimal belongings through the treacherous conditions.

Both Colombia and Panama are allowing 500 migrants to cross through their borders each day, a number that is 'far fewer' than the 1,500 arrivals that have been reported daily.

Panama President Laurentino Cortizo announced at the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday that more than 80,000 migrants have traveled through the nation this year.

Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry argued that those numbers would continue because of 'global inequity'. 

'Migration will continue as long as the planet has both wealthy areas, whilst most of the world's population lives in poverty, even extreme poverty, without any prospects of a better life,' he told the U.N. on Saturday. 

Meanwhile last week U.S. officials cleared out an encampment of nearly 17,000 Haitian migrants under the International Bridge outside Del Rio, Texas. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas admitted Sunday to Fox News' Chris Wallace that as many as 12,000, possibly more, had been released into the US. 

Nearly 4,000 were sent away under Title 42, a coronavirus public health order. 

Former President Trump, meanwhile, claimed that the migrants had been released 'with no vetting, checking or even minimal understanding of who they are.' 

'Some are very sick with extremely contagious diseases, even worse than the China Virus. They are not masked or mandated, but just let free to roam all over our Country and affect what was just a year ago, a great Nation.' 

It's not clear what diseases the former president was referring to.  

Former ICE Director Tom Homan accused Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas of misleading the public after the Biden official finally said 12,000 Haitian migrants have been released into the U.S. 

'It's much more than that and he knows that,' Homan said.

In an interview with Fox on Monday morning, the Trump-era immigration official said Mayorkas underestimated the number of migrants successfully crossing the southwest border because he didn't account for people who were never confronted by border agents and so are harder to track down.

'When he said the 8,000 will return to Mexico, went back to Mexico, he realizes they went one or two miles down the line and came into the United States because they surged so many resources to Del Rio they left 220 miles of border unguarded,' he said.

Many of the thousands who crossed the border over the last week have temporarily settled at an encampment under a bridge in Del Rio, Texas. Around 30,000 Haitians traveled to the border city in the last month, the Biden administration admitted.

Roughly 12,400 Haitian migrants are waiting to have their cases heard by immigration judges, while 5,000 are being processed by DHS and 3,000 are in detention. 

On Monday morning Homan accused Mayorkas of lying again over the 12,400 figure.

'When you say 12,000 are in immigration proceedings, they are not. That's what the secretary leads you to believe,' he said.

He said many of those thousands of migrants were given a 'Notice to Report' which means they would only be in that judicial pipeline if they

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