Almost 500,000 migrants have crossed the jungle region of Darién, on the border between Colombia and Panama and one of the most used and dangerous routes in the journey of these people on their journey to the United States. This was revealed this Thursday by Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in a statement in which they warned of the unprecedented crisis in the area.
According to this organization in a statement, the number of migrants who have crossed the 100 kilometers of “wild nature on horseback” of the Darién Gap It is about to exceed 500,000 so far in 2023, a figure much higher than the 248,000 in 2022 and the 133,000 in 2021.
“The number of migrants who have crossed the jungle is equivalent to more than 11% of Panama’s population. “This is an unprecedented crisis to which not enough global or regional attention has been given,” said MSF general coordinator for Colombia and Panama, Luis Eguiluz.
He added that “safe routes have not been guaranteed for migrants, nor enough resources for the organizations that serve them.
According to MSF, in addition to the natural difficulties of crossing the jungle, Migrants are also exposed to attacks, robberies, kidnappings and sexual violence, Therefore, the organization served 397 survivors of sexual violence – 107 in October alone – including children.
(Also read: The tragedy of the children who cross the Darién)
“How does one survive five rapes?” asks a crying Venezuelan, who told MSF that she left her country for economic reasons.
“We are crossing the jungle looking for a better future, not so that they end our lives. A snake does not end your life, the men inside, who rape and kill, end your life,” he added.
95% of the victims of sexual violence treated by MSF were women and those who tried to defend them were attacked and even killed.
(Also: Ortega’s Nicaragua profits from migration)
“What we have seen and heard from them is that those who travel through the south of the continent are exposed to a situation of extreme vulnerability: hunger, lack of accommodation and water sources, excessive charges, misinformation and scams, xenophobia and physical, psychological and sexual violence“said Eguiluz.
(Keep reading: The story of the cemetery where dozens of migrants who die in Darién end up)
The torture of migrants, according to Eguiluz, begins long before the migrants reach the Darién jungle, “although that is where it becomes evident.”
“From Peru I took a bus that took me to Huaquillas (a city in Ecuador on the border with Peru). There some men took 10 migrants and stole all our money, they made the women undress, they also took our phones and they said that “If we spoke, they killed us. They carried knives and guns,” says David Fuentes, a Colombian-Venezuelan migrant.
EFE
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