Giuseppe Loprete, chief of mission to Panama for the International Organization for Migration, argues wealthier countries – Canada included – should examine their own labour markets and offer visas to those who can fill gaps, he said. “It only increases the suffering of the migrants, who will then have to seek for even worse pathways.” Guillermo, the Doctors Without Borders field co-ordinator. “What we know is that militarizing borders does not reduce migration,” said Ms. The Darien is among Earth’s most intact stretches of tropical forest and coastline.īut international aid organizations have expressed concern about the dangers of forcibly stopping the human passage. Those crossing the jungle also imperil a critical natural resource. The country spent roughly $50-million on food, basic medical care and some security for migrants last year. Panama has many reasons to push away the influx of people. “We’re getting more and more people with chronic disease like diabetes, hypertension, HIV and cancer,” said Tamara Guillermo, field co-ordinator for Doctors Without Borders. In the early months of this year, it was nearly one in five.Įven illness has proven little deterrent. Last year, minors made up 16 per cent of those crossing. But they are joined by the middle-aged, single mothers and even those not yet old enough to walk themselves. Young men continue to make up the majority. South Americans now walk alongside people from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Nepal, Kyrgyzstan, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Vietnam, Syria and many others. Then, as more migrants started to come through, some posted videos to Tik Tok, describing the jungle route and often downplaying its dangers. His willingness to attempt a path that was once considered impassable underscores the immensity of the challenge for the governments that want to halt its use.Įven a few years ago, the trails through the Darien jungle were the realm of local Indigenous groups who knew the area, an occasional wealthy explorer and young Colombians who slipped through with backpacks full of narcotics, willing to confront the dangers of feline predators and flash floods in exchange for a payday. Bracho, his partner and stepson discussed the dangers of their journey beforehand, acknowledging ‘it was going to be really hard – but we decided we have to make it,’ he says. They are among many that Panamanians have seen in growing numbers in the country’s southern hinterland. Today there is a group of Venezuelans and Colombians on the dirt road. His friend told him: “The road is hard, but not impossible.” “I have a friend who walked through with a prosthesis who is already in Mexico City,” Mr. But as the trickle of migrants through the Darien has swollen to a human torrent, it has created a narrative of success that has found a global audience. “I want to get to the U.S.”Ī few years ago, all of that might have seemed like so much reverie, particularly for someone navigating on a single leg. He still yearned for something better, describing the exhaustion of living day-to-day, earning what he could as a street vendor and polisher of cars. ![]() Six years ago, he moved from Venezuela to Peru, joining more than seven million of his fellow citizens who have abandoned the economic failure of their own country. Bracho’s right leg when he was 15, and he now walks with crutches, his arms thick with muscle from supporting his weight. Venezuelan migrant Klismar Bracho says he sometimes feared for his life as he and his family attempted the dangerous Darien Gap crossing.īut fragility has proven little obstacle.Ī car accident claimed Mr. “It’s about the violence and the dangers they face in the jungle by all the groups that are abusing their fragility.” “We have started, with the support of the U.S., a campaign called Darien no es una rota,” she said: The Darien is not a route. said it would begin processing migrants in Colombia, in hopes of diverting some from trekking into Panama.Īuthorities have gone so far as to petition for the removal of social media accounts promoting the jungle route, Panama’s foreign minister, Janaina Tewaney, said in an interview. has helped to lead that effort, ahead of the expected May 11 expiration of Title 42, a pandemic policy used to rapidly expel millions of migrants. These are the dangers that authorities have sought to underscore, as the region mounts a new effort to slow the flow. On parts of the journey, he feared death. “Before we left we agreed that it was going to be really hard – but we decided we have to make it,” he said. He crossed with his partner and a stepson who is not yet three years old. ![]() At one Panamanian town, a doctor reports one in 10 arrivals coming to see him for medical care. Able-bodied men limp out of the forest, battered by tumbles and so hungry they describe eating snakes.
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