Migrant numbers at jungle crossing point to a record-breaking year for irregular migration in North America

Warning: A video linked in this piece contains graphic images

The most feared stretch on the long migrant trail to the Rio Grande — and ultimately to Roxham Road — is a stretch of untamed, roadless jungle on the border between Colombia and Panama.

Hundreds of thousands of people have crossed the Darien Gap on foot. Many have perished in the attempt. The trails through the jungle are strewn with the abandoned belongings and, in some cases, the bodies of those who set out on a gruelling journey that involves at least four river crossings.

The area is full of hazards, both human and natural. One Venezuelan couple who crossed recently showed CBC News cellphone video they shot in the Darien Gap of an alligator swimming with a human leg clenched between its teeth.

The region is dominated by dangerous criminal networks based mostly on the Colombian side, such as the Clan del Golfo. 

In recent years, the government of Panama has tried to at least maintain a count of the number of people crossing through. Statistics collected by Panama's Department of Migration show about 800 people a day crossing through the Darien Gap in January and February — normally the slowest period of the year, because some rivers are too low to operate the motor launches known as "piraguas."

During the same two months last year, only about 150 people were crossing per day. In January and February of 2021, it was only about 50 per day.

"We are very concerned about the situation, especially because in these months normally it's calmer and then later we see the peak," said Giuseppe Loprete of the UN's International Organization of Migration in Panama. "Minutes ago I was here with Panama's minister of security talking about this."

"Criminal networks are getting stronger. It's a huge business."

Migrant numbers typically soar dramatically during the peak crossing months of August to October. In 2021, each of those three months saw more than 25,000 people cross the Darien Gap, and in 2022 the numbers rose from 30,000 in August to 60,000 in October.

If the pattern holds, it suggests that this summer will break all previous records, said Tyler Mattiace of Human Rights Watch, who spoke to CBC News from Mexico City.

"This huge increase that we're seeing in the number of people who are crossing the Darien indicates first of all that the the root causes that are driving people to flee their countries and to attempt to travel north to reach the United States have gotten worse," said Mattiace, who works with the Human Rights Watch migration unit.

Where only a few thousand people a year would have made the trip in earlier times, he said, "travelling through the Darien is now becoming normalized as a way of making that trip. It indicates also that people are more desperate.

"It indicates that 2023 will be the year with possibly the highest number of people crossing the Darien in history."