More than 91,000 migrants crossed perilous Darien Gap this year

Majority of those who took Panama’s dangerous jungle route in hopes of reaching North America are Haitians, IOM says.

More than 91,300 migrants – most of them Haitians – have trekked through Panama’s dangerous Darien Gap jungle so far this year in hopes of reaching North America, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said on Friday.

Citing statistics from Panamanian migration authorities, the IOM said 56,600 Haitian migrants had passed through the Darien Gap, one of the most dangerous routes in Latin America, between January and September of this year. Many had children with them.

The total for nine months of the year triples the previous record set for all of 2016, when 30,000 migrants took the route, the IOM said.