The number of children crossing has also soared
According to Diana Romero, emergency specialist at UNICEF Panamá, one in five migrants crossing the Darién is a child – half of them under the age of five. Although there are no accurate figures, there are many reports of children dying during the trek. The number of unaccompanied children is of particular concern. In 2022, UNICEF assisted about 1,000 unaccompanied minors, but in 2023 that figure reached 3,300. Of those, 67% were teenagers, 21% children aged between 6 and 12, and of the rest, 10% are babies, Romero said. Often, younger children get separated from their relatives during the trek only managing to reunite later on. According to Francisco Pulido, Plan International´s director of humanitarian action and stabilisation in Colombia, teenagers tend to travel in friend groups – often motivated by misinformation shared on social media. In other cases, the entire family cannot afford to continue the trek so parents leave their children in camps, hoping to send them money to follow on later.
Most of the medical cases that aid organisations come across and treat are related to the dangers of the jungle itself, or due to the lack of access to clean water and food en route. There’s no data available, but humanitarian groups say there has also been a rising number of migrants travelling with pre-existing chronic conditions – psychiatric disorders, diabetes, hypertension, or asthma. These people often require emergency assistance because their medications get lost or stolen.
The Darién Gap migration crisis in six graphs, and one map
A record 520,000 migrants crossed the treacherous jungle corridor connecting Colombia and Panamá – known as the Darién Gap – in 2023. Less than a decade ago, that figure was only a few thousand, but the number has been doubling annually in recent years, and a further surge is expected in 2024.
“2023 has broken all records. It has been a huge, terrible maelstrom,” Elías Cornejo, who runs Fe y Alegría, an NGO promoting education and social advancement for migrants in Panamá, told The New Humanitarian. “And we expect a new increase [in 2024].”
Services like Fe y Alegría – on both sides of the Colombia-Panama border – are becoming engulfed as the needs of vast numbers of vulnerable people traversing dangerous territory overwhelm local communities and aid groups trying to help.
The migrants take the 97-kilometre jungle trek – over steep and muddy terrain and along fast-flowing rivers – because it is the only overland route from South America into Central America. Once in Panamá, where government reception centres are overrun, most hope to head northwards through Mexico to the southern US border, but these journeys are also full of risks.
Read more: The challenges facing the humanitarian response
The few humanitarian agencies and organisations operating on the ground in and around the Darién Gap are struggling to meet the soaring needs of those crossing, not least because of the insecurity in the region.
Diana Romero, emergency specialist at UNICEF Panamá, told The New Humanitarian that coming up with the right emergency response hasn't been easy in a high-income country that was unprepared to deal with such needs. “Panama had not faced situations of disasters or crises, so they didn´t have the implementation partners needed,” she said. “In 2019, there were no local humanitarian teams, because there never was a demand for that. There were no specialists in WASH, gender, or nutrition.”
El broche de oro en el peinado
Las flores son las grandes protagonistas en los peinados de las sevillanas que se visten de flamencas. Sin embargo, los expertos apuntan que las flores no deben estar presentes cuando no vamos vestidas así. En cambio, podemos seguir una de las grandes tendencias del momento, que propone Carmen Marcos de CCM: "Hemos hecho una clara apuesta por los prendidos, que son piezas que permiten dar un toque especial al peinado. Desde nuestras horquillas joya, en forma de flores, estrellas, moscas; hasta nuestras crestas y cubremoños, pasando por una renovación de los clásicos peinecillos flamencos".
Quedan horas para que de comienzo la Feria de Abril de 2024 en Sevilla. A las 00.00 del día 14 de abril y tras la celebración de la cena del 'pescaíto', se llevará a cabo el alumbrado en el Real de la Feria. Por delante nos esperan siete días de fiesta y un desfile de looks sobre el albero. ¿Tienes ya outfit? Si la respuesta es no, nuestra guía te ayudará a resolver con éxito este problema de estilo.
Entrevista con Ibon Zugasti y Oliver Avilés desde la Cape Epic: "Antes se veían MTB rígidas en el top 50 y ahora no encuentras ni una"
La pareja del Orbea Factory Team es una de las que más expectación levantan en la Cape Epic 2021. Desde el campamento de la carrera hemos tenido la oportunidad de hacerles algunas preguntas a Ibon Zugasti y Oliver Avilés y esto es lo que nos han contado sobre sus sensaciones en carrera, los recorridos de este año, cambios en su material y sus problemas mecánicos, entre otros.
¿Qué tal está yendo vuestra Cape Epic?
Oliver: Creo que hacemos muy buena pareja, nos compenetramos muy bien. En las subidas y llanos nos vamos ayudando el uno al otro y en las bajadas yo le voy dando rueda.
Ibon: Mejor de lo esperado. Empezamos muy cruzados con averías y muchos problemas, pero a falta de dos días ya hubiera firmado yo estar en esta posición antes de venir. Yo decía que haciendo una buena Cape Epic estaríamos entre el 20-25 y haciendo una muy buena en el 15-20. Estar más arriba de eso es imposible. Cuando vamos bien bien rozamos el 15, pero es que hay super nivel. Estoy muy contento.
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