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Warning: The video linked in this piece contains graphic images
The most feared thing on the migrant’s long road to the Rio Grande – and eventually to Roxham Road – is the roadless jungle on the border between Colombia and Panama.
Hundreds of thousands of people have crossed the Darien Gorge on foot. Many died in the attempt. The paths through the forest are littered with abandoned belongings and, in some cases, the corpses of people who set out on the arduous journey of at least four river crossings.
The area is full of dangers, both human and natural. A Venezuelan couple crossing over recently showed CBC News cellphone video taken in the Darien Gap of a swimming crocodile with a human foot clenched between its teeth.
This area is dominated by dangerous criminal networks that are mostly on the Colombian side, such as the Clan del Golfo.
In recent years, the Panamanian government has tried to at least keep the number of people crossing. Statistics collected by Panama’s Department of Migration show that approximately 800 people a day cross the Darien Pass in January and February – usually the slowest period of the year, because some rivers are too low to operate motorized launches known as “piraguas.”
During the same two months last year, only about 150 people crossed each day. In January and February 2021, only about 50 per day.
“We are very concerned about the situation, especially because this month is usually calmer and later we will see a peak,” said Giuseppe Loprete of the UN International Organization for Migration in Panama. “Just a minute ago I was here with the security minister of Panama talking about this.”
“Criminal networks are getting stronger. It’s big business.”
The number of migrants usually increases dramatically during the peak months from August to October. In 2021, more than 25,000 people will cross the Darien Gorge in each of those three months, and in 2022 the number will increase from 30,000 in August to 60,000 in October.
If the pattern holds, it suggests that this summer will break all previous records, said Tyler Mattiace of Human Rights Watch, speaking to CBC News from Mexico City.
A record year in the making
“The large increase we have seen in the number of people crossing the Darien shows that the main reasons that lead people to flee their countries and try to travel north to the United States have worsened,” said Mattiace, who works with the migration unit of Human Rights Watch. .
Where only a few thousand people a year would make the trip in the past, he said, “traveling through Darien is now normalized as a way to travel. It also shows that people are more desperate.
“This suggests that 2023 will be the year with the largest number of people crossing the Darien in history.”
Mattiace said most of the people who crossed Darien in January and February had not reached the U.S. border.
“It usually takes months for people who cross the Darien to reach northern Mexico, although some with more money can make the trip faster,” he said.
“The speed and ease with which you can travel depends on how much money you bring with you. Even across Darien there are different routes and different options that are safer and easier for people who have a few hundred dollars to spend on a boat to take them around the most dangerous forest.”
Mattiace said the Panamanian government, in response to recent bus accidents, has reduced the number of buses it provides to transport migrants to the north of the country.
“And now there are many people who have spent weeks in camps in the south of Panama,” he said.
“People may have to spend time in Guatemala or Honduras. I’ve talked to people who say, ‘I have to stop in Honduras to earn enough money to pay the bribes I have to pay to continue my journey.'”
“It’s easier,” he said, for migrants who can fly or take the bus. “The fact that a lot of people walk and take the bus at that time is a reasonable option for them, then it’s a question of a few months.”
Separate children from parents
Mexico has received large numbers of migrants in the north recently, causing confusion in the Mexican government and a new wave of restrictions in Central America.
Panamanian statistics show another worrying trend: an increase in the proportion of children, including unaccompanied minors, among migrants – a trend that has also been picked up at the US border.
In January, over a third of the total number of migrants crossed the Darien for the first time, and they did the same in February.
In the Darien Gap:
1) An unusual number of people crossing at this time of year, which shows an increased flow compared to 2022 (which was a record year).
2) The percentage of small children crossing the forest has increased. pic.twitter.com/JT4iYBADbl
Juan Pappier of the Human Rights Watch group noted last week that Panamanian government statistics show a recent increase in the number and proportion of minors among migrants.
The head of Mexico’s migration agency INAMI this week suggested his country could take a page from the Trump administration and start separating children from their parents — an idea strongly condemned by human rights organizations.
“I instructed that, if necessary, children should be removed from their parents so that we can protect the higher interest, which is the minor, and we will not allow them to create danger even if they are parents,” said Francisco Garduno Yanez, commissioner INAMI.
“We have to see if this is just the words of the director of the immigration agency or if the agency really wants to implement this as a policy,” said Mattiace, who added that separating migrant children from their parents would be illegal under Mexican law.
The massive Haitian exodus
The composition of migrant flows is also changing in other ways. Many Haitians.
Of the 49,291 who crossed Darien in January and February, 16,744 were Haitians.
Most Haitians are considered one of the nationalities that can continue their journey to Canada, because of language and family ties.
While the Mexican government is prosecuting parents who bring their children into harm’s way, many Haitian parents have reason to feel more at risk in Haiti – especially in the capital, where gangs have been targeting schoolchildren brutally.
“Many Haitians leave with their entire families,” IOM’s Loprete said. “So we see a lot of people come in three or four, with one or two children. This is very problematic because Darien is really dangerous for everyone, even more so for small children.”
“And many of the observed cases are children who were met at the beginning, and they came to Panama unaccompanied because they lost their parents during transit.”
Loprete told CBC News he has heard many stories of migrants being abused by smugglers. “He was taken to a point on the hill in Darien and the person who organized the trip just continued here, 15 minutes. You will see the first village and then they will help you from there. The fact is not 15 minutes, but five days. And of course in five anything can happen.”
The US, fearing a wave of migrants, is leaning on Canada
US officials, who effectively carry out much of the migration enforcement to Mexico and other Central American countries, are usually aware of migration fluctuations. The Biden administration has signaled that it is concerned about the potential increase in unregulated crossings and the effect it could have on the 2024 election.
It has forced Canada to take responsibility for the deteriorating situation in Haiti – partly in an effort to prevent the kind of outflow of people that the statistics of Panama has occurred.
Mattiace said some heading north through Darien did not leave Haiti immediately, but were still responding to events on the island.
“One of the things you can find when you talk to Haitians in Darien is that many of them have tried to establish themselves in other countries in the Americas, in Chile, in Brazil and Colombia,” he said. “And they often face many challenges that may include legal challenges, may include racism against Haitians, which is a serious problem in South America.
“And they can only include the fact that the situation is getting worse in Haiti, they feel obliged to send money back home to help. But I don’t earn enough to send money to my family in Haiti, and with the situation like in Haiti, I have to be able to send the money back.'”
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