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Navigating 2024's humanitarian landscape
 1. Home
 2. Panama

 * Migration
 * Maps and Graphics
 * 15 January 2024


THE DARIÉN GAP MIGRATION CRISIS IN SIX GRAPHS, AND ONE MAP

‘2023 has broken any record. It has been a huge, terrible maelstrom.’

Daniela Mohor

Latin America Editor-at-large, based in Santiago, Chile

Aris Martinez/Reuters
A woman carrying her young girl at a reception centre for migrants who have
crossed from Colombia into Panamá, on 23 September 2023. More than half a
million people made the dangerous jungle journey through the Darién Gap last
year.
Daniela Mohor

Latin America Editor-at-large, based in Santiago, Chile

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SANTIAGO

A record 520,000 migrants crossed the treacherous jungle corridor connecting
Colombia and Panamá – known as the Darién Gap – in 2023. Less than a decade ago,
that figure was only a few thousand, but the number has been doubling annually
in recent years, and a further surge is expected in 2024.

“2023 has broken all records. It has been a huge, terrible maelstrom,” Elías
Cornejo, who runs Fe y Alegría, an NGO promoting education and social
advancement for migrants in Panamá, told The New Humanitarian. “And we expect a
new increase [in 2024].”

Services like Fe y Alegría – on both sides of the Colombia-Panama border – are
becoming engulfed as the needs of vast numbers of vulnerable people traversing
dangerous territory overwhelm local communities and aid groups trying to help.

The migrants take the 97-kilometre jungle trek – over steep and muddy terrain
and along fast-flowing rivers – because it is the only overland route from South
America into Central America. Once in Panamá, where government reception centres
are overrun, most hope to head northwards through Mexico to the southern US
border, but these journeys are also full of risks.

Read more: The challenges facing the humanitarian response

The few humanitarian agencies and organisations operating on the ground in and
around the Darién Gap are struggling to meet the soaring needs of those
crossing, not least because of the insecurity in the region. 

The Colombian side of the jungle is mostly controlled by the Gulf Clan – a
criminal organisation involved in drug and human trafficking that made an
estimated $57 million from extortion along the migration route in just 10 months
last year. The cartel controls most aspects of the route, determining who can
assist and therefore heavily restricting the humanitarian response. In Panamá,
several international organisations help the migrants who reach the Indigenous
communities of Bajo Chiquito and Canáan Membrillo, and in government-run
reception centres at the edge of the jungle, in San Vicente and Lajas Blancas.
Those facilities, however, are meant to host less than 1,000 people per day.
Instead, in 2023, they were receiving up to 5,500.

Diana Romero, emergency specialist at UNICEF Panamá, told The New Humanitarian
that coming up with the right emergency response hasn't been easy in a
high-income country that was unprepared to deal with such needs. “Panama had not
faced situations of disasters or crises, so they didn´t have the implementation
partners needed,” she said. “In 2019, there were no local humanitarian teams,
because there never was a demand for that. There were no specialists in WASH,
gender, or nutrition.”

As they cross the Darién Gap and beyond, migrants face unchecked abuses by
criminal groups, rampant sexual violence, a cascade of physical and mental
health impacts, and worse: Between January 2021 and March 2023, Panamanian
authorities found a reported 124 bodies on the route, mostly through drowning,
but that’s thought to be a fraction of the real number of deaths, as many go
unreported.

Many making these difficult journeys are escaping regional violence and economic
crises in countries like Venezuela, Haiti, and Cuba, but increasing numbers have
also been coming from countries in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia, including
China.

With no sign of a let-up in 2024, here are six graphs (and one map) that show
the scale and evolving nature of the crisis, with analysis to unpack those
trends.


THE EXPONENTIAL RISE IN DARIÉN GAP CROSSINGS



A number of factors caused the dramatic 2023 uptick in Darién Gap crossings.
Changes in migration policies across the region have made it more difficult for
those trying to reach the United States from South America to cross borders
legally. Several countries imposed visa restrictions on Venezuelans and
Haitians, even as countries such as Chile and Peru militarised their borders,
pushing migrants to leave northward. In 2023, US President Joe Biden’s
administration ended Title 42 – a pandemic-era border restriction – which
motivated more people to head to the United States even though Biden soon
adopted measures making it extremely difficult for them to seek asylum, and
ramped up deportations. The lack of adequate integration policies has also been
a driver. Among Haitians and Venezuelans in the Darién, many are migrating for
the second time, from countries such as Brazil and Chile where they faced
xenophobia, obstacles to regularise their status, and poor job opportunities. In
April, Panamá, Colombia and the United States agreed on a tripartite plan to
open up new regular migration routes to stem the flow, but so far no progress
has been made.


DOZENS OF DIFFERENT NATIONALITIES NOW CROSS, BUT THE MAJORITY IN 2023 WERE
VENEZUELAN



From 2019 to 2022, most migrants crossing the Darién were Haitian and Cuban, but
in the past two years Venezuelans have taken the lead, and the number of
Ecuadorians seeking to escape from violence and poverty has also significantly
increased. However, far from all the migrants crossing the Darién are Latin
American, and the growing presence of migrants from other continents is
garnering the attention of humanitarians, who must now cater their responses to
those who don’t speak Spanish and are foreigners to the region. Chinese,
Afghans, Indians, and nationals of different African countries have to confront
language and cultural barriers, as well as the other dangers.  


MOVEMENTS AND ROUTES THROUGH THE DARIÉN GAP



The journey through the Darién Gap usually starts in the Colombian ports of
Necoclí or Turbo, where local communities offer maritime transportation to the
towns of Acandí or Capurganá. Migrants are charged high amounts of money for
every section of the trip. After crossing by boat, they must pay again to be
allowed to continue through the jungle to the Panamanian side. There are three
main paths leading to the government-run reception centres of Lajas Blancas and
San Vicente, through the communities of Bajo Chiquito or Canaán Membrillo. The
crossing lasts from 5 to 15 days and total costs range from $435 to more than
$1,000 per person. There is also a more expensive VIP route, mostly used by
Chinese. Migrants and asylum seekers then continue their trip to the Temporary
Attention Center for Migrants (CATEM) in Costa Rica, from where, since October,
they are directly transferred by bus to the Costa Rica-Nicaragua border. Many,
however, run out of money before starting the trek and remain stranded in Turbo
and Necoclí, where they are vulnerable to extortion, violence, and human
trafficking.


THE NUMBER OF CHILDREN CROSSING HAS ALSO SOARED



According to Diana Romero, emergency specialist at UNICEF Panamá, one in five
migrants crossing the Darién is a child – half of them under the age of five.
Although there are no accurate figures, there are many reports of children dying
during the trek. The number of unaccompanied children is of particular concern.
In 2022, UNICEF assisted about 1,000 unaccompanied minors, but in 2023 that
figure reached 3,300. Of those, 67% were teenagers, 21% children aged between 6
and 12, and of the rest, 10% are babies, Romero said. Often, younger children
get separated from their relatives during the trek only managing to reunite
later on. According to Francisco Pulido, Plan International´s director of
humanitarian action and stabilisation in Colombia, teenagers tend to travel in
friend groups – often motivated by misinformation shared on social media. In
other cases, the entire family cannot afford to continue the trek so parents
leave their children in camps, hoping to send them money to follow on later.  


THE GROWING MEDICAL CASELOAD



Most of the medical cases that aid organisations come across and treat are
related to the dangers of the jungle itself, or due to the lack of access to
clean water and food en route. There’s no data available, but humanitarian
groups say there has also been a rising number of migrants travelling with
pre-existing chronic conditions – psychiatric disorders, diabetes, hypertension,
or asthma. These people often require emergency assistance because their
medications get lost or stolen.


THE LACK OF MENTAL HEALTH SUPPORT



The traumatic experience of those crossing the Darién is also causing high
numbers of mental health consultations. According to a recent Action Against
Hunger report, women bear the brunt, and are often carrying children with no
support. While survivors of sexual violence may suffer from depression, suicidal
thoughts, and sleep disorders, others feel the emotional burdens and stress of
caring for the family in such extreme conditions. 


RISING SEXUAL VIOLENCE



During 2022, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) treated 232 survivors of sexual
violence in the Darién Gap. Between January and November 2023, that number had
soared to 462. “According to what patients tell us, the modus operandi is
getting crueller,” Cristina Zugasti, MSF representative in Panamá, told The New
Humanitarian. “Large groups are being kidnapped, forced to lay down face to the
ground, and then robbed, physically attacked, and sexually abused.” MSF figures,
she added, are much lower than the reality. Many cases remain unreported because
survivors don't see sexual attacks as a medical emergency, and they also don't
want to delay the arrivals to their destinations. Threats from the perpetrators
are another reason for survivors not to seek assistance.

Reported from Santiago, Chile by Daniela Mohor, with data visualisation from
Zurich, Switzerland by Sofía Kuan.


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