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STORY: IOM / MIGRANTS DARIEN JUNGLE
TRT: 03:03
SOURCE: IOM
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: SPANISH / NATS
DATELINE: RECENT, LAJAS BLANCAS, DARIEN PROVINCE, PANAMA
1. Wide shot, migrants arriving by boat on Chucunaque river
2. Wide shot, migrants disembarking boats helped by IOM staff
3. Pan left, barefoot migrants being helped by IOM staff
4. Various shots, migrants walking towards temporary reception center, migrants lining up for registration, Lajas Blancas Migration Reception Center
5.SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Etzaida Rios, Community Officer, International Organization for Migration (IOM):
“We as an organization provide support to the government of Panama by strengthening the capacities of state institutions, as well as providing different types of assistance to migrants in the different migration reception centers, in the same way we work together with other organizations that help within the migration reception centers.”
6. Wide shot, migrants charging phones
7. Wide shot, migrants lining up for registration purposes
8. Various shots, IOM staff talking to migrants
9. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Wilmer, Venezuelan migrant:
“What I have is the desire to get to where I'm going, to start working, to be able to help my dad and my mom, which is the main reason for leaving Venezuela, because the country is not easy for anyone. But I don't recommend anyone to come through the jungle, it is very difficult. Look at me, I'm young, I have an athletic body and it was difficult for me to get through the jungle.”
10. Various shots, IOM staff assessing needs, migrants receiving food, migrants lining up to receive food
Over 170,000 migrants crossed the perilous Darien jungle that connects Panama to Colombia over the first five months of 2024, according to statistics from the Government of Panama.
Last year marked a record year for migration through the Darien, during which more than half a million people crossed the stretch of thick jungle - where migrants who trek on foot for days often face robbery, violence, human trafficking and sexual abuse.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) continues to ensure migrants receive humanitarian assistance, information, and psychological care after making the perilous journey, as they are often exhausted, malnourished, dehydrated or injured when they arrive at the centres after crossing the Darien.
Etzaida Rios, IOM Community Officer said, “We as an organization provide support to the government of Panama by strengthening the capacities of state institutions, as well as providing different types of assistance to migrants in the different migration reception centers, in the same way we work together with other organizations that help within the migration reception centers.”
Hygiene kits, blankets, protection, and psychosocial support are provided to migrants by IOM in two reception centres in the Darien.
IOM also supports the improvement of shelter infrastructure, provides technical assistance to strengthen capacities for the coordination and management of temporary accommodation, and develops communication campaigns about the risks linked to irregular migration.
The lack of roads, poisonous snakes, rugged mountains, raging rivers, and groups of smugglers or criminal groups did not deter Zuleybis’s family from risking their lives, as thousands of desperate people from Venezuela, Haiti, Ecuador, and countries in Africa and Asia, do every year in search of a better future in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
Wilmer, Venezuelan migrant, said, “I don't recommend anyone to come through the jungle, it is very difficult. Look at me, I'm young, I have an athletic body and it was difficult for me to get through the jungle.”
Wilmer left Maracaibo, on the Caribbean coast of Venezuela, with five friends and USD 450, a year’s worth of family savings, hoping to get a better job in the north and help his parents and three brothers left behind.
