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Darién Gap

Migrants and asylum seekers attend the Sunday Spanish-language service at The Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd in Brooklyn, New York.

New York City urges migrants to find shelter elsewhere, but many don’t know where to turn

Immigration

New York City has opened 188 shelters, including several humanitarian relief centers. But with 56,200 migrants currently living there, the shelter population is at an all-time high.

Three families from Afghanistan prepare to board a boat in Necocli, Colombia, that will take them towards the border with Panama.

Afghan families traverse most of Latin America to seek asylum at the US border

Immigration
After migrants arrive in Capurgana's harbor, they are loaded on tuk-tuks and taken to the shelter on the edge of town.

Migration across Darién Gap changes Colombian village’s economy

Migration
A group of Venezuelan migrants begins the grueling three day trek across the Darien Gap, as they leave the Colombian village of Capurgana.

As Title 42 ends, more migrants from South America are crossing the Darién jungle en route to US

Migration
Migrants cross the Acandi River on their journey north, near Acandi, Colombia, on Sept. 15, 2021. 

‘I survived a green hell’: More Venezuelans are crossing the dangerous Darién Gap

Migration
Aerial view of the green vegetation of the Darien jungle

46K migrants risked their lives crossing the Darién Gap in 2021. That’s more than the last three years combined.

Migration

The Darién Gap, which connects Colombia to Panama, is a jungle with ruthless terrain. But despite its daunting obstacles — including robberies and life-threatening routes — at least 46,000 migrants have made the journey this year alone in an attempt to make it to the US.

Migrants are seen at temporary shelter in the village of La Penita, Panama, on August 23, 2019.

‘We’re dead here’: Migrants stranded in Panama rainforest amid coronavirus

Migration

With borders closed and entire countries on lockdown because of the coronavirus pandemic, some 2,000 migrants — many of them children under age 5 — have been detained for months in Panama, near the rainforest separating South and Central America.

A motor panga (fishing boat) en route to Punta Patiño, a wildlife reserve in the Darién Gap.

At the Darién Gap, the Pan-American Highway’s 30,000 mile journey is interrupted by 100 miles of barely tamable jungle

Environment

The Darién Gap is a small stretch of rugged, swampy terrain between Panama and Colombia. It’s the only point in the 48,000 mile long Pan-American highway where the highway literally stops — because it can’t go forward.

The World

The Darien Gap

The Pan American highway doesn’t go all the way from South America to Canada without interruption. The road breaks in the dense forest between Panama and Columbia known as the Darien Gap. correspondent Jennie Erin Smith visited this beautifully inaccessible region and brought back tales of tamarins and paramilitaries.

The World

Gapping the Pan American Highway

The Darien Gap is the thin peninsula of land that connects Central and South America . The Darien Gap remains a natural land barrier of diverse Amazonian forest despite the clearcutting and road building of vast portions of the region. The Pan American Highway extends between Alaska and Argentina except at the Gap, and now […]