Hundreds of migrants face sex attacks in Darien Gap: MSF

PANAMA CITY: Nearly 400 US-bound migrants, most of them women, have endured sexual violence this year as they crossed a notorious jungle stretch between Panama and Colombia, according to Doctors Without Borders (MSF).

The situation facing migrants in the Darien Gap is “increasingly cruel and dehumanizing”, the international medical aid organization said, adding that the rate of sex attacks had worsened in recent months.

Between January and October, 397 people who received care from MSF -- 97 percent of them women -- have been victims of sexual violence in the jungle.

Panamanian authorities said in September more than 400,000 migrants had passed through the jungle in the previous nine months -- 62 percent more than in all of 2022. Most are Venezuelans but there are also Ecuadorans, Haitians, Chinese, Vietnamese, Afghans and Africans from Cameroon or Burkina Faso.