• About Us
  • Who Are We
  • Work With Us
Wednesday, February 1, 2023
No Result
View All Result
NEWSLETTER
The Globe Post
39 °f
New York
44 ° Fri
46 ° Sat
40 ° Sun
41 ° Mon
No Result
View All Result
The Globe Post
No Result
View All Result
Home Featured

Migrants Dreaming of US Brave Hellish Panamanian Jungle Odyssey

Staff Writer by Staff Writer
05/31/19
in Featured, Refugees, World
Migrants brave the perilous jungles of Panama in pursuit of the United States.

Migrants brave the perilous jungles of Panama in pursuit of the United States. Photo: AFP

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Some have died on the way, pregnant women lost their babies and one Haitian was shot in the arm, yet migrants still trek on foot through Panama’s perilous Darien forest in the hope of one day reaching the United States.

To reach Panama from Colombia, the migrants – mostly from Haiti and Cuba, but also Africa and Asia – brave the nightmare journey across the 2,000 square miles of jungle where snakes and jaguars lurk. There are no roads.

Migrants, many of whom cannot swim, also have to cross rivers where they could be swept away by a powerful current.

“In the group I came with, at least five people stayed behind (in the jungle) and are dying,” said Pierre Louis Clivens, a Haitian who tackled the journey with his wife and seven-year-old son.

Yet the greatest danger stems from people and drug traffickers.

“They took all my money. They took three telephones, one of my husband’s and two of mine, and the thief shot me in the left arm,” said Marie-Claudia Toussaint, a Haitian with her arm wrapped in a scarf as she received a vaccine injection.

In a temporary humanitarian camp in the village of La Penita built for just 100 people, some 1,500 migrants, including 250 children, are crammed into dormitories.

Adults sleep on the floor as little children, either naked or wearing nappies, run around them.

They survived the treacherous crossing from Colombia.


‘Hell’ 

“This jungle is hell,” says Chambe Bezil, a Cameroonian who spent several days in the Darien as he attempts to one day reach the U.S., still some 5,500 kilometers (3,400 miles) away.

There are around 4,000 migrants – from India, Bangladesh, Angola, Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Haiti, and Cuba – housed in various reception centers in the south of Panama, waiting to continue their journey northward.

Despite the jungle’s dangers, the number of migrants opting for this route is growing.

During the first four months of 2019, at least 7,724 adults and 1,141 children crossed the Colombian border through the forest, according to official figures.

That amounts to three times the number of adults and twice as many children as the same period in 2018.

Local authorities have had to set up temporary shelters in the south of Panama to accommodate the new arrivals as they wait for permits allowing them to continue their journey through Costa Rica.

They are planning to build a new fully equipped reception center able to hold 1,200-1,400 migrants.

“We’ve exceeded our housing capacities,” Eric Estrada, Panama’s border service director, told AFP.

But authorities are alarmed by the increasing number of women and children enduring the trek through the jungle’s heat and humidity, running the risk of suffering from dehydration.

Baby Frezin was born on May 11, just a few days after his Haitian mother arrived at the reception center in La Penita. She made the journey heavily pregnant.

But while Frezin “is suffering,” according to Clivens, at least mother and baby are alive.

In January, a boat capsized, leaving “around 20 people dead, including children,” said Kyunsung Kim, the UNICEF representative in Panama.

“We know of other deaths” and “pregnant women who lost their babies,” added Kim.


Fooled by People Traffickers 

According to Panama’s police, the migrants – fleeing poverty, political persecution, a lack of work or the effects of climate change in their home countries – form groups, sometimes including entire families, to make the journey.

“They arrive malnourished, dehydrated, sometimes without money, having been harassed by people traffickers,” said Estrada.

“Unfortunately, criminal mafias that traffic people fool migrants in their home country. They make them believe that the journey will be fast, easy, without problems, but the people find a different reality.”

Whether arriving by boat or by land, from Guyana, Brazil, Ecuador or Venezuela, the migrants reach Colombia, where they head for the 250-kilometer-long border with Panama.

During the last 18 months, Panama has arrested more than 50 human traffickers.

But still the migrants come, and some of those that make it to Panama, with the American dream still alive, have no regrets.

“I’d rather take this journey another 300 times than live under a communist regime,” said Cuban Andniel Gongora.


More on the Subject 

For Migrant Caravan’s Children, a Long Trek to a Murky Dream

ShareTweet
Staff Writer

Staff Writer

AFP with The Globe Post

Related Posts

George Santos from the 3rd Congressional district of New York
Opinion

George Santos for Speaker!

by Stephen J. Lyons
January 16, 2023
Top view of the US House of Representatives
National

Chaos as US House Adjourns Without Choosing Speaker

by Staff Writer
January 4, 2023
Commuters waiting for buses in Metro Manila. Philippines
Opinion

Eight Billion and Counting…

by Stephen J. Lyons
November 29, 2022
US President Donald Trump
Opinion

Donald Trump Thanks You for Your Sacrifice

by Stephen J. Lyons
August 17, 2022
Protesters stand with placards in front of the statue of India's independence leader Mahatma Gandhi in Parliament Square, central London, after a demonstration outside the US Embassy
Featured

Considering the Patience of Gandhi for These Troubled Times

by Stephen J. Lyons
August 5, 2022
US President Donald Trump
Opinion

Owning the Words and the Libs

by Stephen J. Lyons
June 16, 2022
Next Post
Supporters of the Israeli Likud Party wave party and national flags as they gather at its headquarters in the coastal city of Tel Aviv on election night early on April 10, 2019

What's Next for Netanyahu? Israel's Government Turmoil, Explained

Government buildings in the Tunisian capital. Tunisian democracy has faced numerous setbacks since the Arab Spring.

Tunisia Stops Rescued Migrants From Coming Ashore

Recommended

A supporter of nurses' strike and NHS holds a placard

UK Faces Fresh Mass Strikes as Wage Talks Derail

February 1, 2023
Israeli security forces in Jerusalem

Palestinian Gunman Kills 7 in East Jerusalem Synagogue Attack

January 30, 2023
The Doomsday Clock reads 100 seconds to midnight, a decision made by The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, during an announcement at the National Press Club in Washington, DC on January 23, 2020

‘Doomsday Clock’ Moves Closest Ever to Midnight

January 25, 2023
Police work near the scene of a mass shooting in Monterey Park, California

California Lunar New Year Mass Shooter Dead, Motive Unclear: Police

January 23, 2023
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern

Race on To Replace Ardern as New Zealand Prime Minister

January 20, 2023
Pfizer logo and vaccines

Pfizer to Sell More Drugs at Cost to Poor Nations

January 18, 2023

Opinion

George Santos from the 3rd Congressional district of New York

George Santos for Speaker!

January 16, 2023
Commuters waiting for buses in Metro Manila. Philippines

Eight Billion and Counting…

November 29, 2022
Mahsa Amini protests

Imagining a Free Iran

October 24, 2022
Vladimir Putin

How 18th Century International Law Clarifies the Situation in Ukraine

September 29, 2022
Vladimir Putin

Falling for Putin

September 15, 2022
US President Donald Trump

Donald Trump Thanks You for Your Sacrifice

August 17, 2022
Facebook Twitter

Newsletter

Do you like our reporting?
SUBSCRIBE

About Us

The Globe Post

The Globe Post is part of Globe Post Media, a U.S. digital news organization that is publishing the world's best targeted news sites.

submit oped

© 2018 The Globe Post

No Result
View All Result
  • National
  • World
  • Business
  • Interviews
  • Lifestyle
  • Democracy at Risk
    • Media Freedom
  • Opinion
    • Editorials
    • Columns
    • Book Reviews
    • Stage
  • Submit Op-ed

© 2018 The Globe Post