MORE than 248,000 migrants have crossed the Darién jungle this year, on the border between Panama and Colombia, a record number that exceeds the records of all of 2022, despite the dangers they face on their way to the United States.
From January 1 to July 30, 248,901 migrants have walked through the Panamanian jungle from Colombia, which is why it has “exceeded the (total) number of last year,” when the previous record was recorded, said the deputy director National Immigration Department of Panama, María Isabel Saravia.
So far this year, 617 more people have entered than in all of 2022. More than half (close to 137,000) are Venezuelans, followed by Ecuadorians and Haitians (with more than 34,000 of each nationality). From Asia the Chinese stand out (about 10,500) and from Africa the Cameroonians (more than 1,000).
Of the total, 21% are children and adolescents, half of whom are five years old or younger, Saravia said.
“We are talking about people living through unimaginable suffering,” Martha Keays, director of the International Federation of the Red Cross, told AFP.
Border
The natural border of the Darién, 266 km long and 575,000 hectares in area, has become a corridor for migrants who, from South America, try to reach the United States through Central America.
They make this journey despite being plagued with dangers such as wild animals, mighty rivers and criminal organizations that rob them or demand payment to guide them on their route.
These people “arrive injured, dehydrated, in shock, with severe allergic reactions and complications from pregnancy or chronic illnesses that can worsen in the thousands of miles they still have to reach their destination,” Keays said.
In addition, the United States warned months ago that it would not allow anyone entering Panama irregularly to enter its territory.
Panama’s Security Minister, Juan Manuel Pino, recently indicated that, at this rate, the number of migrants who will cross the Darién in 2023 will reach 400,000 people.
The mystery of the dead
The number of migrants through the Panamanian jungle has skyrocketed in recent years, going from 133,000 in 2021 to 248,000 in the first seven months of 2023.
“We are above the 700,000 people who have entered Panama through the Darién from 2009 to date,” Saravia declared.
However, the Panamanian authorities do not know the exact number of migrants who die on the journey due to the inaccessibility of the terrain, the lack of complaints and the abandonment of the bodies, which sometimes end up being eaten by animals.
In 2022 at least 52 people died in the jungle, according to data from the authorities, who suspect that the number of deaths may be higher.
“In most cases it is not possible to determine the cause (of death),” José Vicente Pachar, director of the Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences, dependent on the Panamanian Prosecutor’s Office, told AFP.
“When the authorities arrive, the corpse is rotten and mutilated by animal anthropological activity,” he added.
insufficient help
Experts consider that the causes that originate this migratory wave towards North America are violence, insecurity, poverty, political crises and, increasingly, the impact of climate change in the countries of origin.
To deal with the situation, the Panamanian government has installed several centers throughout the country where it provides, together with international organizations, basic aid to migrants, but this aid is insufficient given the demand.
In addition, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) this year gave Panama a hundred niches to bury migrants, in front of overflowing morgues.
“International aid is insufficient, but it is and will continue to be urgent if, as we estimate, the number of people crossing the Darién doubles in the coming months,” Keays said.
An example of the risks for migrants is that they are exposed to accidents. In March, 39 people died in Panama in the accident of a bus that was transporting migrants from a shelter on the border with Colombia to another in Chiriquí, a few kilometers from Costa Rica.
But another percentage that is even more worrying is the number of children and adolescents who are led on the reckless journey, according to what was stated by the director of the International Federation of the Red Cross, the infants who face this hard journey “live unimaginable suffering.”
Regarding the participation of international organizations, Keays commented on the serious physical and emotional consequences that small migrants experience when they are treated with humanitarian aid.
migrating childhood
In the last four years about 612,705 people have traveled through the thick jungle, and of those, 20% are children; that is, approximately 120,000 minors.
Precisely, minors are part of the populations most affected by this panorama. The Ministry of Public Security of Panama reported that during the months that have elapsed since 2023, more than 40,000 children have crossed the Darién jungle, a total of 40,458 migrant minors: 21,135 boys and 19,323 girls.
In this regard, the director of the National Migration Service, Zamira Gozaine, mentioned a harrowing panorama in which the international authorities have come to find: “abandoned children and others, next to the corpse of their mothers.”
“Some have not sat in an educational center for two or three years and others, along this route, are victims of crimes against their integrity, suffer from inclement weather, suffer from hunger, cold, fear or are separated from their parents in the jungle”.
The other panorama in Central America
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) encouraged increased efforts in the fight against human trafficking and cited Costa Rica, in the Central American migration corridor, as an example.
Heydi González, from the IOM’s Regional Migration Program, said in an interview with AFP in San José that every “transit country” for migrants must strengthen measures against trafficking.
“Costa Rica is one of the model countries in the region because it also has a fund to support victims (of trafficking). It is one of the countries that has a more structured institutional framework and that is a model for the region, but we must resume and reinforce these efforts,” he explained.
“Given how complex the route is, it may be that here (in Costa Rica) it is a resting place, because there is an institutional framework that responds,” added Heydi González, also coordinator of the UN Joint Program to fight treats.
He highlighted the possibility for migrants to receive “humanitarian assistance” and “more information and services” in Costa Rica, although he said that this country, like no other, is not exempt from the crime of human trafficking.
The IOM and the UN seek to strengthen coordination with Central American countries to prosecute human trafficking. These efforts “are still not enough” due to the complexity of prosecuting a crime that in many cases becomes transnational, he said.
Migrants arrive in the region after crossing from Colombia to Panama through the dangerous Darien jungle and “as they get closer to North America, it becomes like a funnel and the passage and the routes become more and more complex.” networks are operating with greater force,” said González.