2024-03-13 17:19:03
The NGO Doctors Without Borders denounced an increase in sexual violations and brutality suffered by many migrants who cross the inhospitable Darién jungle, on the border between Colombia and Panama, on their route to the United States.
In just one week in February, the health teams of the NGO Doctors Without Borders (MSF) have treated 113 migrants, including nine minors, who suffered sexual assaults by criminal gangs that operate in Darién on the border between Colombia and Panama, on their route to the United States.
As reported by MSF during January, The figure reached 120 cases.
“They threaten them, they attack them, they systematically sexually abuse women.”in front of other migrants and even in front of their families and children,” denounced the head of MSF mission in Colombia and Panama, Luis Eguiluz.
“In a last episode, various migrants have detailed to us how “Those who refused to collaborate were shot to death.”Eguiluz added.
According to the NGO’s figures, in January The gangs raped three women every day on average and in February the figure rose to 16 per day.
“It is inconceivable. We had already reached very high numbers in December and January and there had been talk of deaths occasionally. But now in the last rounds the level of brutality is extreme“, pointed out Eguiluz.
They become vulnerable
The Darien jungle, a 266 km long border between Colombia and Panama and 575,000 hectares of surface, has become a corridor for migrants who From South America they try to reach the United States.
Travelers take between three and six days to cross the jungle, where they face many natural dangers, but also criminal gangs that rob migrants or demand payments to guide them on their route.
In 2023, a record of more than 520,000 people crossed this dangerous route. Of them, about 120,000 were minors.
In two months of 2024, more than 72,000 people crossed the Darién, a number that exceeds the 50,000 in the same period the previous year. Almost two thirds are Venezuelans, followed by Ecuadorians, Haitians, Colombians and Chinese.
“Reported incidents of abuse are increasing, several migrants have lost their lives and others are witnesses or victims of violence, sexual abuse, physical threats and discrimination“, declared the head of the Mission in Panama of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), Giuseppe Loprete.
“Migrants spend days in the jungle, in remote areas or in precarious boats, without enough food or medicine, following false information, and become vulnerable to all kinds of abuse,” he added.
The Migration coordinator for America of the International Federation of the Red Cross, José Félix Rodríguez, warned that as long as migrants continue to cross “irregular routes” such as the Darién “they will continue to be at risk” of losing his life.
What the Government of Panama says
Nonetheless, The Panamanian government does not know the exact number of deaths due to the inaccessibility of the jungle, the lack of complaints or the abandonment of the bodies, which are sometimes devoured by animals.
“The numbers of violence and sexual violence that we see in Darién are unusual“I have not seen them in other humanitarian crises,” said Eguiluz, who asked the Panamanian government to redouble its efforts to protect migrants.
“It is an aberration that is increasing and, what is worse, no one seems to care, “We do not see major changes in the impunity with which the assailants operate,” he added.
Meanwhile, the Panamanian government tries to dissuade migrants with messages warning of the danger of Darién.
Furthermore, it has been forced to install, with the support of international organizations, care centers that provide basic services to travelers.
“Cross-border and regional cooperation is necessary to address the crisis as soon as possible,” Loprete said.
“The passage of migrants through the Darién still massive and nothing indicates to us that the humanitarian needs in the area are going to decrease in the short term,” Rodríguez warned.