Migrants from Haiti, Congo, Bangladesh, and Yemen, who were traveling to find a better life in the United States and Canada, now find themselves quarantined for more than 50 days in Panama. They are sheltering at an official government migration support station in the small town of La Peñita near Panama’s border with Colombia. Their movement has been stopped by border closings and fears that they are carriers of COVID-19.
The situation becomes more precarious with each passing day. The migrants sleep on mats in crowded stations where they find themselves unable to socially distance or regularly wash hands while facing shortages of food, water and other essentials.
Migrants travel on a three hour raft crossing from Bajo Chiquito to La Peñita in Panama. United Nations photo: UNICEF Panama
The 1,724 migrants in La Peñita arrived after enduring an exhausting journey. Men, women and children walked for four to seven days through the “Tapón of the Darién,” an extensive tropical and mountainous zone on the border between Panama and Colombia. This particularly inhospitable stretch of rainforest confronts people with dangers like insects that can swarm and sting, poisonous snakes, and predatory humans that steal, rape and murder.
Before the pandemic, migrants spent about a week at these official stations. The Government of Panama verified their identities using iris scans and fingerprinting, and provided medical exams, including immunizations, before migrants continued their journeys north. Now migrants linger, trapped, waiting for borders to reopen.
Migrant children wash hands at a migration support station in Darien, Panama. United Nations photo: UNICEF Panama
United Nations agencies protect the rights and well-being of migrants
A range of United Nations agencies are working with the Government of Panama to look after the basic needs of these migrants while mitigating their risk from COVID-19. The United Nations agencies include UNICEF, UNHCR and IOM, specializing in children’s welfare, refugees and migration.
UNICEF, through its WASH program (water, sanitation, and hygiene), provides clean water to both migrants and residents of nearby towns. Their work is vital to prevent gastrointestinal and respiratory diseases, especially in children. With handwashing one of the few effective defences against COVID-19, clean water and soap are truly a life-saving intervention. Additional supplies crucial to preventing COVID-19 transmission like masks, sanitizer gel, and paper towels, are supplied by UNCHR to station organizers.
Migrants receive medications through UN support at a migration support station in Panama. United Nations photo: UNICEF Panama
The United Nations agencies have also expanded food deliveries to migrants in the stations, including special food for infants, while providing hygiene kits with soap, diapers, sanitary napkins, toothpaste and toilet paper.
Shelter for migrants, including tents and temporary housing, is being supplied by IOM and UNCHR. While staying in these migration stations, people fleeing persecution are receiving help applying for asylum.
In his policy brief, titled “COVID-19 and People on the Move”, the Secretary-General António Guterres presents some of the challenges faced by migrants, internally displaced persons and refugees, as well as possible solutions to alleviate the problems they face.
“The COVID-19 crisis is an opportunity to reimagine human mobility,” he said, expressing gratitude “to countries, especially developing countries, that have opened their borders and hearts to refugees and migrants, despite their own social, economic, and now health, challenges. They offer a moving lesson to others in a period when doors are closed. It is essential that these countries are provided increased support and full solidarity. “
The United Nations is committed to protecting the rights of migrants throughout the world to a safe and orderly migration. Through the collaboration of United Nations agencies with the Government of Panama, the safety and well-being of the migrants in La Peñita is being protected even in the middle of a global pandemic.
