120,000 Minors Crossed Darien Gap Last Year In Bid To Reach US

Migrants carrying children walk by the jungle near Bajo Chiquito village, the first border control of the Darien Province in Panama, on September 22, 2023 (Credit: AFP)

Record numbers of migrants crossing the hostile Darien gap jungle in 2023 included 120,000 minors, the Panama government said Monday.

The year ended with 520,085 people recorded as traversing the lawless, thick rainforest that straddles Panama and Colombia, Panama's public security ministry wrote on Twitter.