Record Numbers Of Migrants Are Crossing The Dangerous Darién Gap

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4.3 • 4.5K Ratings

🗓️ 26 October 2022

⏱️ 37 minutes

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Summary

The Darién Gap is a roadless stretch of treacherous jungle that connects Panama and Colombia. It is increasingly crowded with migrants who are risking their lives to make it to the United States.

"People will go to great extents to improve their lives or get away from danger. Even the greatest natural deterrents in the world won't stop them from seeking a better life," says Migration Policy Institute's Andrew Selee.

We discuss what it's like to trek through the Darien Gap and why so many more migrants choosing to make the perilous, week-long journey.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	It was so difficult when I think about that time, I can't sleep.
0:12.3	I thought that I was going to die.
0:14.3	I wanted to die.
0:15.3	I thought that I was going to go crazy in the forest.
0:19.2	That's Salimada Baco Yoko.
0:21.3	She's one of the thousands of people who have made the journey from Venezuela to the US
0:25.3	Mexico border.
0:26.9	The most treacherous part of that journey, the Darian Gap.
0:30.4	It's a dense stretch of jungle that straddles the Panama Columbia border.
0:34.9	According to Human Rights Watch, 32,000 people, mostly Venezuelans, passed through the 66
0:40.5	Malgap in August.
0:42.1	That's 40 times more than the same month last year.
0:46.0	Most including Salimada are refugees fleeing a humanitarian crisis at home.
0:51.0	She fled violence in Ivory Coast with her infant son and husband, and she described
0:55.5	the experience to us through an interpreter.
0:58.1	We spent seven days.
0:59.8	There was rain.
1:00.8	We didn't have anything to eat.
1:02.7	There was so much rain and so much mud that we couldn't walk.
1:07.3	It was very difficult to walk.
1:09.0	We left our country with a lot of things and we lost them during this time in the forest.
1:14.5	Two weeks ago, the Biden administration announced it would start sending some Venezuelan
	...

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