Journey in the Darién: Migration through the Jungle
We can theorize and study migrations for years to build and implement innovative social projects that offer solutions that address the needs of the most vulnerable communities. However, when there is too much theorizing from offices, an essential factor is not taken into account to understand the migration phenomenon: talking and listening to the stories of people who have been forced to migrate.
In August 2023, we visited the migrant reception stations (ERM in Spanish) of Darién. As an organization that provides humanitarian aid services, the information collected during these visits allows us to develop future projects. Our efforts are always focused on meeting the needs of this population. This is why we understand that the best way to implement programs is knowing from the community itself what the needs are.
By listening to dozens of stories, we were able to verify the personal and unique reasons and experiences of each migrant. However, we see that many of these overlap: migrants flee poverty, hunger, lack of freedom and violence.
Desperate to offer their families a better life, these migrants are deceived with the idea of “a new life” and “opening opportunities to those they leave behind.” However, they don’t know the full reality: along the way they encounter the exploitation of scammers, the hostility of immigration posts, corruption, assaults and rapes, hunger, fear, threats, the risk of ending in prison, and death.
Although the message “Darién is not the route” is promoted, it is possible because of all the dreams and desires of a better life for these migrants. Many of them, in the midst of the loneliness that migration implies, just want to be heard and “receive a hug.” That human sense is and will be the center of every project that AID FOR AIDS and AID FOR LIFE do, responding and offering solutions to the worst humanitarian crisis that the Latin American region has suffered in the last 100 years.
“They sell us a ticket to death because getting out of that jungle is just a matter of luck. This has to end,” words of Rodolfo Vázquez, a Venezuelan who is traveling with his entire family.
