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(CNN)A grounds fig of children crossed connected ft the treacherous agelong of jungle betwixt Colombia and Panama known arsenic the Darien Gap this year: 19,000, fractional of whom were nether 5 years old, according to UNICEF.
The infamous 60-kilometer (37-mile) trek northbound brings migrants from Colombia to Panama -- a important transition retired of South America for those hoping to scope the United States and Canada.
Travelers trying to marque it done -- galore of them from Haiti -- person reported robberies, corpses, mutilations and rape successful the dense wood on the route.
For children, the dangers are acute. At slightest 5 children person been recovered dormant successful the jungle, and much than 150 children ended up arriving successful Panama without their parents, according to UNICEF, which has been moving with different organizations and authorities agencies to assistance migrants astatine some ends of the journey.
"We spot a batch of children being separated from their parents during this horrendous trip, truthful erstwhile they arrive, they've been picked up by idiosyncratic who was conscionable walking by. Sometimes babies oregon precise young children are picked up by strangers and brought to our reception centers," Sandie Blanchet, UNICEF's typical successful Panama, told CNN.
More than 88,000 radical person entered Panama done the jungle chokepoint, Reuters reported successful precocious September, citing Panama's National Migration Service.
As much and much susceptible radical walk done the area, organized transgression has besides taken root.
Sexual unit is progressively an "instrument of terror" wielded by transgression gangs operating astir the Darien Gap, according to UNICEF. Minors are sometimes targeted; the bureau has registered 29 reports of intersexual maltreatment of teen girls since January, successful summation to assaults connected women.
"One of the things that shocked maine erstwhile I was successful 1 of the reception centers is proceeding women who were raped and who were asking for conscionable for caller clothes. They were inactive wearing the apparel they were wearing erstwhile they were raped. And they wanted conscionable to get escaped of these clothes," said Blanchet.
Even for families who negociate to enactment together, the week-long hike is brutal.
"What parents person told america is that they commencement the travel with immoderate h2o and immoderate food, but they don't recognize however acold it is and however agelong it's going to instrumentality them," Blanchet said. "So astatine immoderate constituent during the trip, they don't person water, food, there's thing available, truthful they commencement drinking the h2o from the river, which is not potable."
Children look from the jungle anemic with dehydration and fatigue, and often plagued by tegument diseases from tropical insects, she added.
On apical of this are what Blanchet called "the invisible wounds" near by the journey.
"Many of these kids person gone done a unspeakable time, they person seen things they should not person seen," she said.
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