Sexual assaults at the Darien Gap are so frequent migrants travel with morning-after pills

SEATTLE - For years, the Darien Gap, a 60-mile treacherous jungle path that connects Panama and Colombia, has been known as one of the most dangerous migrant crossings in the world.

Being the only overland route from South America to Central America, criminal groups have used the area to conduct migrant smuggling operations, which has often involved all sorts of abuses on those making their way up north.

Fe y Alegría, an NGO promoting education and social advancement for migrants in Panama said that a record 520,000 migrants crossed the treacherous jungle corridor in 2023. And although figures have dropped this year, largely over the past months as a result of the new Panamanian government's intention to crack down on migration through the region, several hundreds of thousands have crossed so far. And sexual violence has become a feature for many.

In a recent interview with El País, Tirana Hassan, the executive director of Human Rights Watch, said that sexual assaults have become so frequent that women are now traveling with morning-after pills in case they get raped by members of criminal groups.

Hassan urged both the Colombian and Panamanian governments to respond to the surge of sexual assault cases at the Darien Gap, saying that it should be a joint effort to fight criminal groups that control the area.

"By interviewing migrants and asylum seekers, we have found that the majority of migrants are from Venezuela and Haiti. One of our recommendations is to guarantee a temporary protection status to Venezuelans and Haitians, because we know that the current situation in their countries is so difficult that, for many, it is not safe to return," Hassan said.

Last year, Doctors Without Borders teams treated more than 400 survivors of sexual violence, many of them children, after they successfully crossed into Panama. Between April 2021 and March 2024, MSF reported that their teams assisted 1,500 people who experienced sexual violence while crossing the treacherous rainforests, although MSF considers the total number of survivors to be likely much higher.

In October of last year, MSF teams assisted 107 survivors, including 59 people in one week, which equates to one incident of sexual violence occurring every three hours.

"How can you survive five rapes?" said a Venezuelan migrant in tears, whose name was withheld for security reasons.

Humans Right Watch reported that almost 700,000 people crossed the Darien Gap over the past 18 months. They argue that most abuses appear to take place on the Panamanian side of the border, where perpetrators ambush migrants at gunpoint.

Hassan also said that Latin American leaders should implement laws that respect human rights.

"With that, what we are trying to say is that we recognize people's rights to move and cross borders in a safely manner. We recognize that the people fleeing their home countries due to violence should be protected or at least deserve to have their cases evaluated," Hassaid said. "Government officials should not use migrants and asylum seekers as scapegoats in order to excuse their own problems," she added.