More than 400,000 migrants could cross the treacherous Darien Gap linking Panama with Colombia this year, the United Nations said on Friday, well up from nearly 250,000 in 2022 as the number of people making the journey surged over recent months.
In the first months of 2023, some 100,000 migrants have crossed the dangerous stretch of jungle, six times more than in the same period the previous year, the U.N. said, citing government figures.
"After 2022 was a record year, in which nearly 250,000 refugees and migrants risked their lives crossing the Darien in search of protection and better opportunities, the first quarter of 2023 points to an increase," the U.N. refugee agency and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said in a statement.
