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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Mat Youkee in Lajas Blancas

‘They tricked us’: migrants who braved the Darién Gap forced home by Trump deal

people walking in water
A family crosses a river near Bajo Chiquito, Panama, after walking across the Darién Gap from Colombia on their way north to the US on 9 November 2024. Photograph: Matias Delacroix/AP

Outside the Lajas Blancas migrant camp in southern Panama, wooden shops are boarded up. A bed of cold ash lies in an iron drum barbecue which once served meat skewers to hungry migrants.

Six months ago, hundreds of people would pass through the camp every day, emerging from the jungles of the Darién Gap between Colombia and Panama to receive humanitarian aid, before continuing their journey north towards the US.

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