Migrant flow through Darien Gap at all-time high

An unprecedented movement of 126,275  migrants across the dangerous  Darien Gap has led to the reported deaths of 60, and 150 children arriving at receiving stations or shelters without their parents.

A report from the National Migration Service reveals that it was a migratory flow never seen before.  In 2019, some 22,102 travelers crossed the jungle border between Panama and Colombia, and in 2020 – the year in which the pandemic broke out – 8,594. The year in which the most crossed the border between Panama and Colombia was 2016, with 30,055.

One of the most vulnerable groups is that of children and adolescents. Migration reports indicate that 28,344 crossed the Darien jungle in the first 11 months of 2021 (22.3% of the total registered migrants.)

This year, some 150 minors arrived in the country without their parents after entering the dangerous jungle Until their parents arrive, they are cared for in this temporary home, which is known as La Casita.

“La Casita is a protection space, in which boys and girls can be temporarily placed and receive food, health care, the care of a caring mother so that they can wait for their parents while they leave the jungle. ”Says Diana Romero, Unicef ​​Emergency Specialist.

Today, when International Migrants Day is commemorated, Romero explains that the international organization has been advocating for two years for Darién to have protection measures in child care, to have a place where they can be located and that they can be received in case they are separated from their parents in the jungle.

As a result in 2020, they made an alliance with Aldeas SOS and articulations with governmental institutions of Panama, to realize La Casita.

Arisela Góndola, a psychologist who takes care of the children who arrive at La Casita, qualifies Sanaicar as a “leader” for comforting the other infants, since, in general, on a physical and emotional level, children come out very badly when leaving of the journey in the jungle.

“They see dead people on the way, they were separated from their parents and they always bring itchy skin, fungal feet, some lacerations, colds, a horrible cough, and stomach problems. Here they recover while they wait ”, she says.

Graciela Mauad, director of the National Secretariat for Children and Adolescents, stressed that they have strengthened the Darien regional team with social workers, psychologists, and lawyers,  to enable more frequent visits to reception stations.