The Darién Gap migration crisis in six graphs, and one map

News Update

A record 520,000 migrants crossed the treacherous jungle corridor connecting Colombia and Panamá – known as the Darién Gap – in 2023. Less than a decade ago, that figure was only a few thousand, but the number has been doubling annually in recent years, and a further surge is expected in 2024. “2023 has broken all records. It has been a huge, terrible maelstrom,” Elías Cornejo, who runs Fe y Alegría, an NGO promoting education and social advancement for migrants in Panamá, told The New Humanitarian. “And we expect a new increase [in 2024].” Services like Fe y Alegría – on both sides of the Colombia-Panama border – are becoming engulfed as the needs of vast numbers of vulnerable people traversing dangerous territory overwhelm local communities and aid groups trying to help. The migrants take the 97-kilometre jungle trek – over steep and muddy terrain and along fast-flowing rivers – because it is the only overland route from South America into Central America. Once in Panamá, where government reception centres are overrun, most hope to head northwards through Mexico to the southern US border, but these journeys are also full of risks.