Two United Nations agencies said Thursday that more 100,000 migrants have made the treacherous journey through the Darien Gap between Panama and Colombia this year trying to reach the United States.
The UN Refugee Agency and the International Organization for Migration said in a joint statement that the spike in numbers is a “worrying increase.”
The increase shows six times more people made the dangerous trip than this time last year.
In addition to the criminal gangs the migrants could encounter in crossing the roadless terrain of the jungle, they can also face rushing rivers and venomous snakes.
Most of the people who risked crossing the Darien last year were Venezuelans, Haitians and Ecuadorans. Others included Asians from China and India, as well as Africans, mainly from Cameroon and Somalia.
Last year, 250,000 migrants made the dangerous journey through the Darien Gap.
“Panama is facing one of the most challenging crises of mixed movements in the last decade, as part of an unprecedented displacement across the Americas," the agencies said in a joint statement.
Some information for this report was provided by The Associated Press and Agence France-Presse.
