PANAMA (AP) — The International Red Cross on Thursday donated to Panamanian authorities about 100 vaults in a remote cemetery to bury the unidentified or unclaimed bodies of migrants who died trying to cross the dangerous jungle of Darien, in the border with Colombia in transit to the United States.
The structure that was delivered consists of a pavilion with a hundred niches to protect the bodies of migrants recovered by the authorities in the inhospitable province. It is built in the cemetery of the isolated community of Pinogana, in the border area, and is the first of its kind to be built in Latin America, on one of the most dangerous migration routes for displaced people in the region.
The aim is for the remains to be kept in an individual burial, where their characteristics can also be recorded. “We know that many migrants talk about bodies they see along the road, these bodies have families, these lifeless bodies must be preserved,” said Marisela Silva Chau, head of the regional delegation of the International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC). . ) for Panama and the Caribbean.
The space given to the authorities intends that the human remains remain in place “in decent conditions” on a temporary or permanent basis, until they are identified or until relatives can claim them, he said. -he adds.
The Darien Jungle is one of the most dangerous sections traversed by thousands of migrants on their way to the United States. In 2022, at least 36 migrants died – mostly by drowning – trying to cross it. Although the figure could be higher as many perish in the jungle without their remains being reported or recovered.
Nearly 250,000 migrants, mostly Venezuelans, Ecuadorians and Haitians, crossed the jungle last year, a record number.
In mid-February, around 40 migrants died when the bus in which they were transported from Darién to a camp near the border with Costa Rica fell down a slope.
The Institute of Forensic Medicine and Forensic Sciences, which participated in the delivery of the niches, said that the project also envisages, as a humanitarian solution, the individual and dignified burial of the inhabitants of El Real de Santa María who , after death and still being identified They have no relatives to claim their remains.
“It’s a joint collective effort; the result of having raised awareness of the presence of a structure of this nature in the Darién”, said the regional head of the International Committee of the Cross of Ruja, underlining the support of the Pinogana community, which ceded the land of the cemetery , and the collaboration of the forensic institute.