Migrants ‘do not travel thousands of kilometers on a whim,’ says aid agency chief – EFE Noticias

By Moncho Torres

Bajo Chiquito, Panama, Nov 2 (EFE).- The director of the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation, Antón Leis, visited this week the village where hundreds of migrants arrive every day after days of crossing the dangerous Darién jungle, the natural border between Colombia and Panama.

Leis arrived in Bajo Chiquito after a long canoe trip up the Turquesa River, where he met boats full of migrants who, after spending the night in this Indigenous village, will continue their journey of more than 6,000 kilometers to the United States border.

He highlighted that migrants “do not travel thousands of kilometers on a whim, much less to commit crimes,” but because they are fleeing wars, hunger, or misery, which are the deep-rooted causes of the global migration crisis.

Among the more than 285,000 migrants who crossed the jungle in 2024, most were Venezuelans. Still, there are also nationals from Colombia, Haiti, Ecuador, China, Bangladesh, Palestine, Afghanistan, India, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Somalia, among many others.

“We want migration to be an option, not an obligation, so it’s important to address these root causes. People don’t travel thousands of kilometers on a whim. People (…) do it because of important causes: wars, conflicts, hunger, misery, poverty, inequalities, and violence,” Leis told EFE.

He outlined the first objective of Spanish cooperation regarding migration, as established by a law passed in 2023, which also aims to promote safe, orderly, and regular mobility, as proposed by the United Nations pact, and to combat human trafficking.

This is a complex and long-term task because, as he pointed out, “migration phenomenon is here to stay; those who suggest easy solutions that will solve it all at once are selling blowing smoke.

“”Those of us dedicated to cooperation know this very well: as long as poverty, hunger, and inequalities exist, there will be migration; that is undeniable. What the public authorities must do, and what we can do through cooperation, is to help while guaranteeing the human rights of migrants,” he said.

Some 8 million Venezuelans have fled the country in one of the largest migratory flows, a crisis in which Spanish cooperation has invested around 100 million euros (108 million dollars) since 2020.In Central America, Spain’s active cooperation projects related to the migration crisis amount to 7.2 million euros (about 7.8 million dollars), including programs such as training schools and support for returning women in Honduras and Panama, where they have invested about 3 million euros (3.2 million dollars) in the last two years.

A Spanish hospital in Darién

Since September, Spanish cooperation has also set up a clinic in Bajo Chiquito to respond to this humanitarian emergency as part of the START project (Spanish Technical Team for Aid and Response).

A team of volunteers from the Spanish health system, which rotates every two weeks, has treated around 1,800 people in transit (about 8.2% of the total arrivals at Bajo Chiquito), mainly women and children from more than 30 countries.

Among the all-female medical staff is Claudia Ruiz, who left her job at the Red Cross Central Hospital in Madrid for a few weeks. She noted that in addition to treating infections, skin wounds, and “badly damaged feet” from being wet for days on end, there were also “a lot of patients with trauma and psychological pathology.”

“They come very traumatized by what they’ve suffered in the jungle, and what they need is someone to listen to them, to care for them, to give them emotional support.

“They have experienced humiliating treatment, not only from the dire conditions they face in the jungle for days, without food or water, with the fear of wild animals and insect bites but also from theft and sexual assault. When they arrive here, they are broken,” she told EFE.

Left behind in the jungle

Venezuelan Miguel Alviárez carries his two-month-old baby as he tries to cross the river. The area is too deep, so he retreats in search of a safer place. His wife is with him.

On their second attempt, they manage to overcome the last obstacle. Bajo Chiquito is only a few meters away.

After days in the jungle, Miguel lamented leaving a woman behind. He repeats that he did it for his baby because they could not wait any longer.”She stayed in the middle of the jungle. I would have liked to go back, but my feet can’t take it anymore. I feel sorry for that woman. She started the journey with us,” says the 32-year-old, referring to an overweight woman with “swollen legs” who was accompanied by a young girl and her four-year-old daughter.

Yusmary Bueno and her husband, Eduardo Morales, also regretted not being able to help the woman because it was getting dark, and they had to move on after almost a week in the jungle, slowed down by rain and the ever-rising rivers.

“We couldn’t wait any longer… and we ran out of food,” says Yusmary with her four children.Yusmary also remembers how the current almost swept her husband away while he was helping a child.

She speaks of the “strong smell” of the dead.”We tried not to look too much,” she says. EFE

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