#dariengap

The Darién Gap was thought for centuries to be all but impassable. Explorers and would-be colonizers who entered tended to die of hunger or thirst, be attacked by animals, drown in fast-rising rivers, or simply get lost and never emerge. Those dangers remain, but in recent years the jungle has become a superhighway for people hoping to reach the United States. According to the United Nations, more than 800,000 may cross the Darién Gap this year—a more than 50 percent increase over last year’s previously unimaginable number. Children under 5 are the fastest-growing group.

The U.S. has spent years trying to discourage this migration, pressuring its Latin American neighbors to close off established routes and deny visas to foreigners trying to fly into countries close to the U.S. border. Instead of stopping migrants from coming, this approach has simply rerouted them through the jungle, and shifted the management of their passage onto criminal organizations, which have eagerly taken advantage. The Gulf Clan, which now calls itself Ejército Gaitanista de Colombia, effectively controls this part of northern Colombia. It has long moved drugs and weapons through the Darién Gap; now it moves people too.

Everyone who works in the Darién Gap must be approved by the cartel and hand over a portion of their earnings. They have built stairs into hillsides and outfitted cliffs with ladders and camps with Wi‑Fi. They advertise it all on TikTok and YouTube, and anyone can book a journey online. There are many paths through. The most grueling route is the cheapest—right now, about $300 a person to cross the jungle on foot. Taking a boat up the coast can cost more than $1,000.

  Since the beginning of this year, the number of migrant children crossing the dangerous Darien Gap between Colombia and Panama on foot has hit an all-time high, UNICEF warned today.  

Map of Darién Gap. Photo by Milenioscuro. Wikimedia.   From January to October, some 32,488 children crossed the Darien Gap toward the United States, surpassing the total figure recorded for 2021 by 10 per cent. Additionally, a record number of unaccompanied children, estimated to be around 900, crossed the Darien Gap in 2022, quadrupling the previous year’s total. Each migrant represents a life with great hardship. During the day’s long trek through the jungle, children and families are exposed to multiple forms of violence, including sexual abuse, trafficking, and exploitation, as well as a lack of safe water and food, insect bites, wild animal attacks, and overflowing rivers. Children under the age of five who make up around 50 per cent of all migrant children are particularly vulnerable to diarrhoea, dehydration, and other communicable diseases. Additionally, the stress and danger associated with this perilous journey leaves many children at risk of emotional trauma.  

Hannan Sulieman, UNICEF DED and Sandie Blanchet, UNICEF representative in Panama at Lajas Blancas. Photo by Eduard Serra. UNICEF.  

UNICEF urges all governments to take actions.

Hannan Sulieman, UNICEF Deputy Executive Director said while visiting the Migrant Reception Centre in Lajas Blancas, “Violence, poverty, and the hope to find better life conditions drive families with children to flee their homes and face threats in inhospitable environments such as the Darien Gap,”   She also said, “In Panama, like in many other countries, a spike in the number of migrant children has overwhelmed the capacity to provide basic services in response to their specific needs. UNICEF urges all governments to take actions to protect all migrant children, regardless of their origin. Children should never be returned to situations where their basic safety and well-being are at risk.”   With support from the European Union and the United States, and in close collaboration with the government and other partners, UNICEF has scaled its presence from one to five reception centres at the borders with Colombia and Costa Rica and in Panama City. The centres provide safe drinking water, hygiene supplies, psychosocial and health services to thousands of children and pregnant women on the move, as well as to the host communities that live in dire poverty.