By Alexandre Le Breton, head of the ICRC’s mission in Panama
Nobody is ready to cross the Darien Gap. Nobody is ready to trek through the jungle for days, facing unavoidable dangers and finding dead bodies along the way. Nobody is ready to cross rivers with the very real fear of losing their children. Nobody.
The Darien Gap is a dense and dangerous jungle that lies between Colombia and Panama and an area that is rife with humanitarian challenges. It is sometimes referred to as a “green hell”. Amidst the lush greenery, desperate and dangerous situations unfold for people fleeing violence and persecution. Hope and fear drive these people to cross borders in search of a better future.
In 2023, a record number of migrants – over 500,000 people from around 30 different nationalities – crossed the Darien Gap. The number of people using this jungle as a migration route has increased significantly in recent years. Last year’s figure is almost double the number of people that made the crossing in 2022 and less than a decade ago, that figure was as low as just a few thousand.
This testimonial from Joel, a Venezuelan migrant, sheds some light on the traumatic situations that people experience when crossing the Darien Gap:
To tell you the truth, 80% die and 20% live. I’m not going to say that it’s easy and that everyone should do it, but if I could do it, then so could they. It is really dangerous though. I sw