Colombia and Panama Must Protect Migrants in the Darien Jungle: UN Rapporteur
Migrats at the Darien Jungle, 2025. X/ @UN_SPExperts
February 27, 2025 Hour: 12:57 pm
Enhanced collaboration is needed to combat trafficking, smuggling, and sexual violence, Madi pointed out.
On Thursday, Gehad Madi, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants, urged Colombia and Panama to strengthen their cooperation to protect migrants during their dangerous journey through the Darien jungle.
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“Enhanced collaboration is needed in their shared Darien jungle to combat crimes and violence, including trafficking, smuggling, and sexual and gender-based violence; to address impunity for these crimes; to enhance accountability; to prevent migrant deaths and disappearances; and to protect the environment,” Madi said after concluding back-to-back visits to Colombia and Panama last week.
The Darien jungle is currently one of the most dangerous routes. On the Colombian side, the absence of state institutions and the presence of the far-right paramilitary group “Gaitanist Self-Defense Forces of Colombia” make migrants and refugees easy victims of extortion. To cross this jungle region, migrants must pay up to US$400 to armed criminal groups and human traffickers.
Things are no better on the Panamanian side, where “robbery, extortion, attacks, kidnapping, and killings are common. Failure to pay extortion may subject women and girls to a heightened risk of sexual violence, including rape,” recalled the UN Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner (OHCHR).
“Colombia needs to strengthen State presence, while State authorities in Panama should collaborate with provincial, municipal, and local governments, as well as community leaders, to enhance accountability and prevent the recurrence of crimes in the jungle,” Madi said, emphasizing that Colombia and Panama should take joint responsibility to ensure the protection of migrants and refugees.
“The Darien is not a safe path; alternative migratory routes should be identified, and institutional presence ensured,” the UN Special Rapporteur stated.
“Both Colombia and Panama need to urgently strengthen their asylum and human rights protection systems to ensure effective access to asylum for those in need and to fulfill their obligations under international human rights and refugee laws,” he added.
teleSUR/ JF
Sources: EFE – OHCHR
