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 * Migration
 * News feature
 * 3 June 2024


AS DARIÉN MIGRATION GOES GLOBAL, LANGUAGE BECOMES A MAJOR CHALLENGE

‘Sometimes officials demand things, but we have no idea what they want.’

Joshua Collins

Freelance journalist, based in Bogotá, focused on migration and violence

Timothy O’Farrell

Migration researcher and photojournalist living in Colombia, originally from
Aotearoa (New Zealand)

Timothy O’Farrell/TNH
Hundreds of migrants leave a camp in Acandí, Colombia, heading towards the
Darién Gap, in April 2024. Last year, migrants from over 100 countries took the
dangerous jungle trek into Panama.
Joshua Collins

Freelance journalist, based in Bogotá, focused on migration and violence

Timothy O’Farrell

Migration researcher and photojournalist living in Colombia, originally from
Aotearoa (New Zealand)

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The Darién Gap: The reality behind the numbers: This ongoing series explores the
risks, complexities, and dynamics surrounding one of the world’s busiest but
most neglected migration routes, on the border of Colombia and Panama. For more
context and background, read this story. 

NECOCLÍ, Colombia

Two dozen people with Chinese passports in hand and heavy luggage in tow line up
at Necoclí dock ready to depart for the Darién Gap. Boats wait to take them
across the bay to the town of Acandí – the gateway to the treacherous
100-kilometre jungle trek from Colombia into Panama that is the only overland
route towards the United States.

The Chinese migrants pay street vendors in US dollars to wrap their belongings
in plastic and avoid damage during the 40-minute ride. None of them speak
Spanish. Instead, they negotiate via hand signals: Vendors charge them three to
four times more than the Spanish-speaking migrants paying in Colombian pesos.



The group is managed by a Colombian handler, who bundles their passports and
speaks with the workers at the docks, organising passage, sorting their tickets
and checking off the names he has on a clipboard.

Until last year, the vast majority of migrants crossing the Darién Gap came from
Latin America and the Caribbean, but while Venezuelans and Ecuadorians still
make up the two largest groups, the jungle stretch has now turned into a global
migration hotspot. 

In 2023, migrants from over 100 countries made the passage, those from China
being the fourth biggest group and the largest outside the Americas, according
to official Panamanian data. Afghanistan came in at number seven, and India in
tenth spot. The list increasingly includes countries from across Asia, Africa,
and the Middle East.

The annual numbers attempting the journey have soared from tens of thousands to
hundreds of thousands in just a few years: Last year, more than 520,000 people
took the path, and more than 110,000 traversed the route in the first three
months of 2024.



The internationalisation of the influx through the Darién has been sudden and is
putting pressure on aid groups and governments to adapt to the specific needs
these new migrants have. Their lack of Spanish language skills and different
cultural mindset often put them at even greater risk than Latin American
migrants. 

“Numbers in the Darién Gap, in a sense, act as an international barometer, and
what it is telling us is clear,” said Bram Ebus, consultant in Colombia for the
International Crisis Group (ICG). “This is an international crisis.”


THE KEY DRIVERS

The United States has become an ever more attractive destination. The number of
migrants encountered at the Mexico-US border – both those apprehended and those
expelled – soared from approximately 1.7 million in 2021 to nearly 2.5 million
in 2023. 

A number of factors have been contributing to this trend.

Post-pandemic inflation rises and economic slowdowns have been important push
factors in many countries, including China.

Lack of integration, restrictive migration policies, and mounting xenophobia
across South America have also been pressuring many of the more than 7.7 million
Venezuelans who fled their country’s economic collapse since 2015 to migrate for
a second time. Other countries have their own particular circumstances. In
Afghanistan, for example, the return of the Taliban and a series of droughts,
floods, and earthquakes are adding to an already complex humanitarian crisis,
driving many to migrate. 

Conflict is a key factor for many. According to global conflict monitoring group
ACLED, 2023 saw 12% more conflicts compared to 2022, and a 40% increase from
2020. This amounts to one in six people living in active conflict zones around
the world.

Migrants from Somalia, Haiti, and Syria, all described conflict – or fear of
conflict – as one of the main reasons for their decision to apply for asylum in
the United States.

Climate change has also become a key driver: extreme weather patterns causing
natural disasters and turning more regions into “climate hotspots” where
biodiversity is disappearing and agriculture has become almost unviable. Nepal,
Bangladesh, and India – high on the list of Darién Gap nationalities – are among
the countries more vulnerable to climate risks.

Once in the Americas, the increasing trend to impose visa restrictions and to
militarise borders in several Latin American countries makes the Darién Gap the
only overland pathway for those wanting to cross into Central America and head
northwards. 

For some nationalities, Nicaragua provides one alternative. The government
eliminated visa requirements for Cubans in 2021, leading to a significant drop
in the numbers of Cubans crossing the Colombia-Panama border. In a move that
spurred tensions with the US government, Nicaragua began offering entry to
Haitians and an increasing number of African and Asian countries via charter
flights. But these flights and visa costs are steep and out of reach for many. 

US visa requirements and domestic migration policies are also making it harder
for migrants from outside the continent to enter the United States legally,
forcing them to go through Latin America.

This all means that a growing number of people from Asia, Africa, and the Middle
East are feeling compelled to travel north through the Darién Gap to the US
border to ask for asylum, joining hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans,
Haitians, and Ecuadorians.


THE LANGUAGE BARRIER

Ahmed is one of them. A recent graduate in his mid-twenties, he has travelled
from Kismayo, a port in southern Somalia, to Las Tecas – a migrant camp at the
entrance of the jungle trek on the Colombian side of the border, about eight
kilometres from Acandí.

When The New Humanitarian encountered him in April, he was waiting at a small
aid station run by Médecins du Monde (Doctors of the World). The woman he was
travelling with, also Somali, wanted to take advantage of the health services
before they embarked on the gruelling hike into Panama, which takes three to
five days. 

Ahmed speaks English, Somali, and a bit of French. He translated for her as she
interacted with the doctors, from English to Somali. It was the first
opportunity she had had to speak with medical professionals since their trip
began. 

Médecins du Monde has workers who speak English and Spanish on site. For other
languages, they have access to translators who work by phone, but they are not
always available, which sometimes forces them to communicate via Google
Translate.

Aid workers told The New Humanitarian that the majority of humanitarian groups
operating in the region are yet to adapt to the influx of non-Spanish-speaking
migrants.

Médecins du Monde is among those trying. It is in the process of expanding its
translation capacities by posting French-speaking staff at its station in Las
Tecas and employing more translators in Necoclí, where many aid organisations
operate.

A worker from GIFFM – the Colombian organisation that coordinates aid responses
between the government, UN agencies, and private efforts – told The New
Humanitarian that the language barrier is particularly problematic during
medical emergencies, when using a translator over the phone can be far from
ideal.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, they described the case of a woman from
Kenya who sought treatment for a mental health emergency in Necoclí. Her
distress prevented her from communicating clearly what language she spoke,
delaying treatment by hours until a translator could arrive in person, which
resulted in additional anguish for her and complicated her care.

Compounding the issue is the fact that communicating with those in authority is
also difficult. According to Ahmed, migration officials in Necoclí spoke
exclusively in Spanish, as did most police during his journey. “Sometimes they
demand things, but we have no idea what they want,” he said.


A WAY AROUND VISA REQUIREMENTS

In early 2023, Ahmed had never heard of the Darién Gap, but he was already
trying to leave his native country out of fear of being forced to join a gang or
extremist group.

“They don’t give you a choice,” he said.

He tried to move to Kenya, but was denied asylum. Then he saw “a TikTok video
posted by a Somali friend in America”, recorded in the Darién Gap. After
researching online and in migration group chats, he decided to follow his
friend’s example.



Ahmed organised the trip himself, but many migrants in the Darién region plan
their intercontinental odysseys with “travel agencies” – some of which are run
by transnational criminal organisations, according to Ebus.

A Chinese migrant in his early twenties who spoke to The New Humanitarian and
plans to go by the name of “Bobby” when he arrives in the United States used one
such “agency” to plan his route. 

Bobby, who asked that his real name be withheld, is among a growing number of
middle-class Chinese nationals who have chosen to leave their country due to
strict lockdowns, dire economic conditions, and restrictions on political
freedom. 

Between January and April 2024, more than 24,000 Chinese people were registered
at the southern border of the United States – more than during all of 2023,
according to the US Department of Homeland Security.

Of the dozens of migrants from outside of Latin America who spoke to The New
Humanitarian in the span of three days, most said they began their land journeys
in Peru or – more commonly – Ecuador, because it doesn’t require visas for most
nationalities, and migrants often only need to provide proof of onward travel
before being granted a tourist visa.


EASY TARGETS 

Migrants from Africa, Asia, and the Middle East don’t only face linguistic
challenges. They are also more vulnerable to corrupt security forces and
criminal groups, especially as the police and the cartels know they tend to
travel with more money.

Ahmed’s group was robbed by Peruvian police, who pulled them off a public bus at
a security checkpoint and demanded money. They didn’t have enough on them to
satisfy the officers, who then took the group to an automatic teller machine
under threats to withdraw more. When one of Ahmed’s companions refused, he was
beaten and had to go to the emergency room, Ahmed said.

Venezuelans who enter Colombia formally have some limited access to services,
but migrants who don’t are generally excluded from healthcare, which operates
under a public-private hybrid system that relies on health insurance coverage
for payment. The government provides this insurance for free to less wealthy
Colombians, and also offers a system of subsidies, but most migrants don't
qualify for these.

“If a transient migrant shows up at an emergency room with life-threatening
injuries, medical officials are legally bound to provide treatment,” explained
Luisa Fernando Gómez, communications director for the health secretary in
Apartadó – a city that serves as a regional hub in northern Colombia for
migrants travelling on to the Darién. 

“But for other conditions, including pregnancies, or complications from
long-term health conditions, they will be denied treatment and referred to
private doctors,” she added.

Prenatal care and paediatric services are becoming vital for migrants in the
Darién region as families increasingly undertake the journey. More than 30,000
children crossed the Darién Gap in the first four months of 2024, according to a
May report from UNICEF – a 40% rise compared to 2023.

Fernando Gómez said the Apartadó mayor’s office – in conjunction with the
Colombian Red Cross and UN agencies – is trying to provide basic services via
roving “mobile healthcare units”, especially for prenatal care and malnutrition.

“But these are for everyone,” she explained. “While they provide treatment to
some migrants, they are not specifically targeted at migrant populations,” she
added, urging NGOs to step in more and fill the gap. 

These obstacles, however, are not stopping migrants from persevering. 

At the time of publication, Ahmed was still trapped in Tapachula on the
Guatemalan-Mexican border. He had been robbed twice more in his trip – once by
Guatemalan police, and again by other migrants when he arrived in Mexico. 

“I am going to have to beg my uncle for money,” he told The New Humanitarian via
text messages. “I don’t have the resources to continue north.”

Edited by Daniela Mohor.


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