{"id":1558,"date":"2023-11-14T18:44:20","date_gmt":"2023-11-14T18:44:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gcrf-reghid.com\/?post_type=blog&p=1558"},"modified":"2023-11-14T21:45:04","modified_gmt":"2023-11-14T21:45:04","slug":"the-international-community-is-failing-the-human-rights-of-forced-migrants-crossing-the-deadly-darien-gap","status":"publish","type":"blog","link":"https:\/\/gcrf-reghid.com\/blog\/the-international-community-is-failing-the-human-rights-of-forced-migrants-crossing-the-deadly-darien-gap\/","title":{"rendered":"The International Community Is Failing the Human Rights of Forced Migrants Crossing the Deadly Darien Gap"},"content":{"rendered":"
It was an unbearably hot day in late July 2023 when we arrived at Lajas Blancas, a Migratory Reception Centre located in the Panamanian region of the Dari\u00e9n, on the banks of the river Chucunaque, where thousands of migrants arrive each day after crossing, in small wooden boats and by foot, one of the world\u2019s most dangerous migration routes. Dari\u00e9n is an area of more than 500,000 hectares of rainforest, steep mountains, and vast swamps that separates Colombia from Panama. As we delved deeper into the reception centre, thousands of people gathered in queues, trying to get something to eat, clothing and some rest in rarely available shaded spaces. They stay there for days or weeks until they find a way to continue their journeys to Costa Rica and northward to the final destination, the United States; a journey that can take up to 3 months.<\/p>\n
According to UNHCR, a record 248,000 migrants crossed the Dari\u00e9n Gap in 2022, most of them fleeing hunger, poverty, and violence from Venezuela (55%), Haiti (14%), Ecuador (14%) and more recently from China. By January 2023, there was a seven-fold increase. The reduction in visa granting, together with restrictive immigration policies across the region, have forced migrants to seek alternative, more dangerous routes.<\/p>\n
As we spoke to several migrants, they tell a common story of conditions in their home country that became intolerable and left them with no reasonable alternative other than to flee due to reasons of physical insecurity, loss of shelter and livelihood, or because their ability to care for themselves and their families were radically undermined. Pursuing a better future is a struggle for survival, including crossing the Dari\u00e9n. Almost all arrive at Lajas Blancas, the temporary Migration Reception Centre, with no shoes, few or no clothes, wounded and ill, and in need of urgent medical assistance and immediate humanitarian support, particularly women and girls, who are at an extremely high risk of sexual violence and trafficking. They are in desperate need of protection for their right to live lives with dignity.<\/p>\n
Panama is \u2018the bridge of the world\u2019 for its impressive maritime and air connectivity. The Dari\u00e9n is, however, a long and dense jungle area that connects South and Central America. Yet an almost impossible crossing that became the route of last resort for many forced to leave their country and enter a migration process because of violence, poverty, food deprivation and hunger, gender violence and ill-health.<\/p>\n
All the way from Colombia to Panama, migrants pay ‘coyotes’ to cross the jungle, with the poorest migrants taking longer, more dangerous pathways and reinforcing a cycle of dispossession. In other words, how much they can pay determines the distance, the route, the exposure to risk, where they arrive once they have crossed, and when they would continue their journey.<\/p>\n
Despite increasing reports of human rights violations in such routes, the response in the Dari\u00e9n is minimal, with few governmental programmes available and a significant dependency on humanitarian aid from organisations such as\u00a0M\u00e9dicins Sans Fronti\u00e9res<\/em>\u00a0and UN agencies.<\/p>\n Upon arrival at Lajas Blancas, the scenario is highly militarised. Alongside the extremely hot temperatures and poor sanitation, it makes the place seem rather inhospitable and unsafe. The first contact is with military staff from SENAFRONT and the Panamanian National Migration Service. Red Cross, Doctors Without Borders, and other NGOs and UN agencies are also present, all located after initial checkpoints by the Panamanian authorities. With mandatory registration, migrants are forced to stand in long lines, without exception, even for those with ill health, carrying a baby or caring for family members with disabilities.<\/p>\n Migrants show visible signs of physical and mental exhaustion, wounds in feet and legs due to insect bites, lacerations on legs and arms, fever, diarrhoea, vomiting, dehydration and malnutrition, as well as psychological disorders. But arriving demands a focused effort to understand confusing space organisation and to identify points of assistance and help, as well as available places for rest and overnight stay, and how and where to board (paid) transportation that will take them from that Reception Centre to the border with Costa Rica, and beyond. There are other \u00a0(unregulated) private businesses that offer services of various kinds, such as telephone, transportation, food, and monetary transfers, among others, which add up to the chaotic environment in these centres. The constant need to pay for every step of the way, and to a large extent for essential resources, has led to the creation of a subsistence economy in which everything is bought and sold: food, clothing, cigarettes, sending money, renting tents; and even the body.<\/p>\n On 19th<\/sup>\u00a0September 2023, at the\u00a078th Session of the United Nations General Assembly<\/a>, Panam\u00e1\u2019s President Laurentino Cortizo Cohen declared, \u201cThis is an unsustainable situation\u2026in which we are victims and not responsible.\u201d To be clear, forcibly migrants crossing the Darien have been victimised precisely because of violent and destructive denial of rights, protection and even humanity before, during and after crossing.<\/p>\n Situations of mass displacement of the kind seen crossing the Darien raise important questions about states\u2019 responsibility to protect. During the commemoration of the 30th anniversary of the Cartagena Declaration in Brazil, Panama and other Latin American countries unanimously adopted the\u00a0Action Plan<\/a>\u00a0to protect the human rights of persecuted and displaced people at the national and regional levels. A decade later, Panam\u00e1\u2019s Director of the Migratory agency,\u00a0Samira Gozaine, stated that Panam\u00e1 is now in the process of subcontracting charter flights to \u201cdeport or expel the greatest number of people<\/a>\u201d irregularly arriving by air, sea or land, something that not only contradicts Cartagena\u2019s duties towards refugees within the region, but directly contravenes international law against nonrefoulement.<\/p>\n A polarised approach to irregular migration management not only risks undermining and weakening national and international law, but also diverts attention\u00a0from a collaborative approach to respond and protect the lives and rights of refugees and forced migrants in vulnerable situations.<\/p>\nShared responsibility for the human rights of forced migrants<\/h2>\n