The green hell: the dangers of the Darién, the route that migrants take towards North America

“At times I do not want to remember what happened in the jungle, it is something that if I had known, I would not have exposed my two daughters,” Angélica, a migrant, recounted in December 2022. venezuelanto the organization doctors without borders after having managed to cross the feared Darien junglealong with her husband and their 6 and 8 year old girls.

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Just like Angélica, thousands of migrants risk their lives and that of their families pursuing the dream of reaching the north of the continent. A route that, on many occasions, is the only way out of the deep crisis that is being experienced in their countries of origin.

The Darién region extends over 575 thousand hectares on the border between Colombia and Panama. It is an area with dense vegetation, wild animals and in which different criminal organizations mainly dedicated to human trafficking operate.

Due to these dangers, in addition to the already aggressive nature, international organizations such as the UN Refugee Agency (Acnur), authorities such as the Panamanian immigration authorities or even foreign governments, such as the United States, the destination for many of These migrants have spearheaded different efforts to discourage people from continuing to cross the dangerous route.

The latest figures, however, show that the efforts so far have been useless as the average number of migrants crossing the Darién has grown dangerously.

In the first four months of this year, more than 127,000 irregular migrants traveling to the United States arrived in Panama after crossing the Darien jungle, reveal official figures obtained by the EFE news agency.

This number is six times higher than that registered in the same period of 2022.

In this infographic produced by Trade You will be able to learn more details about the Darién, the dangers it hides and the numbers of migrants who cross it.

Source: Elcomercio

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I am Jack Morton and I work in 24 News Recorder. I mostly cover world news and I have also authored 24 news recorder. I find this work highly interesting and it allows me to keep up with current events happening around the world.