Crossing the Darién Gap: Migrants Risk Death on the Journey to the U.S.

The Darién Gap is an imposing obstacle on one of the world’s most dangerous migration routes. The remote, roadless crossing on the border between Colombia and Panama consists of more than sixty miles of dense rain forest, steep mountains, and vast swamps. It is the only overland path connecting Central and South America. Over the past few years, it has become a leading transit point for migrants in search of work and safety in the United States, as authorities have cracked down on other routes by air and sea.

However, migrants face many challenges on this land journey northward, including treacherous terrain, exposure to disease, and violence at the hands of criminal groups. As the number of migrants grows—with more than half a million making the trek in 2023—so too does the impact on the Indigenous communities whose lands they often traverse. International aid organizations have sought to manage the crisis by setting up temporary housing and providing basic services to those arriving in Panama, even as the Panamanian government has announced new measures to crack down on migrants and asylum seekers entering the country. 

Economic insecurity, political upheaval, violence, and climate change are driving tens of millions of people from their home countries, according to World Bank experts. At the same time, the lifting of COVID-19 border restrictions has reopened many travel routes across Latin America. Most migrants are ultimately headed for the southern U.S. border, where they hope to receive asylum. But many coming from the Caribbean and South America first have to cross the sixty-mile-wide Darién Gap, the only break in the Pan-American Highway that otherwise stretches uninterrupted from Alaska to the southern tip of Argentina.

According to the Panamanian government, a record number of more than 520,000 migrants crossed the Darién Gap en route to the United States in 2023, over double the number reported the year before and up from just a couple hundred people annually a decade ago. Approximately one-fifth of those who made the crossing were children. The majority of migrants were from Venezuela, followed by Ecuador and Haiti, but some hailed from as far away as Angola, Bangladesh, and Pakistan.

Experts say the number of people risking their lives to cross the gap is expected to increase as socioeconomic conditions continue to worsen across the region. Since a devastating earthquake rocked Haiti in 2010, for instance, tens of thousands of Haitians moved to South America, where they have faced discrimination and economic difficulties.  In 2021, 61 percent of migrants traversing the Darién Gap were from Haiti. That number dropped to about 9 percent in 2023, though the country continues to endure gang violence, political instability, and the effects of frequent natural disasters. Meanwhile, the number of Venezuelans crossing the gap has sharply increased as the humanitarian situation in their home country grows more dire.

The first stop on the journey north is the coastal town of Necocli, Colombia, on the shore of the Gulf of Urabá. Most migrants already in the region travel on foot or take local transportation to get there. But for those coming from Africa and the Caribbean, the route is more complicated. Under mounting pressure from the United States to contain illegal immigration, the Mexican government has expanded its visa requirements, making it more difficult for people to fly directly to the U.S.-Mexico border. Instead, they will now often fly into Brazil or Ecuador, where visa policies are more lax, before heading for Necocli. To bypass the Darién Gap entirely, some African migrants are flying to Nicaragua before heading north.

Necoclí is a major transit point for migrants seeking to enter Panama. While the number of migrants crossing the border slowed at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the relaxation of travel restrictions across the region has seen thousands of migrants flood the small town. The influx has strained local infrastructure, resources, and services, and contributed to food and water shortages. Another starting point is the port city of Turbo about an hour south of Necoclí that regained popularity in 2023 after it was largely unused for years.

While waiting to take an hour-long ferry ride to Acandí, a town about five miles from the Panama border, migrants take shelter in hotels or makeshift camps on the beach. Most have few possessions; any leftover money is often spent buying food and camping gear from street vendors. Another common destination point in Colombia is Capurganá, a remote village on the eastern edge of the jungle.

Some have been forced to wait weeks for the ferry. The Ombudsman’s Office of Colombia, a government agency responsible for overseeing the protection of civil and human rights, has been tasked with addressing the backup in Necoclí.

Once in Acandí, migrants will head for the Darién Gap jungle, a dangerous hike that can take ten or more days. Many pay to be led by local guides, or “coyotes.” Along the route are smugglers and criminal groups, including members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia and the Gulf Clan, a paramilitary group and Colombia’s largest drug cartel. These groups often extort and sexually assault migrants. “Deep in the jungle, robbery, rape, and human trafficking are as dangerous as wild animals, insects and the absolute lack of safe drinking water,” Jean Gough, then regional director for Latin America and the Caribbean at the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), said in an October 2021 news release. “Week after week, more children are dying, losing their parents, or getting separated from their relatives while on this perilous journey.” UNICEF estimated that half of the children who crossed in the first six months of 2023 were under five years old.

The environment presents an equally large challenge. The Darién Gap is one of the wettest regions in the world, and frequent rainfall can trigger landslides in the mountainous terrain. Temperatures can reach 95°F (35°C) with high humidity, exacerbating persistent thirst and hunger. The area’s wildlife, including crocodiles and venomous snakes, add to the dangers migrants face.

“The journey was really quite hard, especially when the rain came. It was just mud, rivers and going up mountainsides non-stop,” one Haitian migrant told Al Jazeera. “There were pregnant women, we had to walk in rivers … children were fainting, and even men, at times, who couldn’t continue.”

Aside from SENAFRONT, Panama’s national border service, there is no police force in the area and no formal road, making it difficult to stop arms and drug trafficking, or find help. According to Panama’s Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences, more than sixty migrants died trying to cross the gap in the first six months of 2023, though officials say the actual figure is likely to be much higher.

While there are several route options, migrants usually exit the jungle at Bajo Chiquito, a small village in eastern Panama. (Another common exit point is the Indigenous village of Canaán Membrillo.) There, they are met by international humanitarian organizations such as Doctors Without Borders and UNICEF, which have set up reception centers to provide medical care and mental health services, as well as access to essentials such as water, hygiene, and sanitation. (In March 2024, the Panamanian government suspended Doctors Without Borders’ operations in the country.)

It is in Panama that migrants are registered and biometrically screened by authorities for the first time on their journey. Most then resume their trek north. Together with international organizations, Panamanian authorities have set up infrastructure to temporarily house migrants and provide them with basic services, but officials say more assistance is needed. According to then Foreign Minister Erika Mouynes, the government lacks the money needed to provide long-term humanitarian support to migrants.

But to get to the United States, migrants have to cross half a dozen more borders, where they face the risk of being stopped or deported. Even if they reach the southern U.S. border—a journey of roughly 2,500 miles (4,023 kilometers) from Central America—many are turned away or expelled back to their home countries. In April 2023, U.S. officials announced they had struck a deal with Colombia and Panama to shut down the Darién Gap route; the proposed sixty-day plan was pitched as part of a broader effort to stem an expected surge in illegal migration at the U.S.-Mexico border. As part of the plan launched in June, Panama’s government will dedicate some 1,200 immigration agents, border police, and naval air service members to combat transnational organized crime in the jungle.

But migrant numbers have only grown, as hundreds of thousands of people continue to flee worsening poverty and unrest in the so-called Northern Triangle countries of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, and beyond. In September 2023, Panamanian authorities announced that they were increasing migrant deportations and implementing stricter requirements for foreigners seeking short-term stays in the country. In July 2024, newly elected Panamanian President José Mulino announced that U.S. officials would begin training Panamanian personnel to screen and deport migrants who enter the country illegally. That same month, it was reported that the Panamanian government had installed barbed-wire fencing through the jungle to dissuade crossings.

In this YouTube Short, CFR Senior Fellow Shannon K. O’Neil explains why hundreds of thousands of Latin American migrants traverse the Darién Gap annually.

This photo essay by CFR’s Will Freeman, Steven Holmes, and Sabine Baumgartner explores what’s driving migration to the United States from six Latin American countries.

This Human Rights Watch report unpacks Colombia’s and Panama’s responses to mass migration across their shared border.

This video by PBS NewsHour follows special correspondent Nadja Drost and videographer Bruno Federico as they travel through the Darién Gap in August 2020.

This Backgrounder by Amelia Cheatham and CFR’s Diana Roy offers a deep dive into migration from Central America’s so-called Northern Triangle countries.

This CFR InfoGuide examines the global migrant crisis and the strains it is placing on the international refugee system.