The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) has launched a regional response plan to support more than three million people in Latin America, including refugees and migrants from Venezuela.
«The crisis is especially evident in the dangerous refugee and migrant route through the Darien Gap jungle (which, those who cross it, go) in search of a better and safer future,» the agency’s Asia and Latin America director general, Adam Combs, said in a statement.
In this sense, he pointed out that, as part of this crossing, an «increasing» number of Venezuelan men, women and children «must avoid life-threatening dangers, including difficult terrain, sexual assault and often deadly violence».
Combs reported that several countries in the region, especially Mexico, are «on the edge with their own immense protection and displacement crises» and urged the international community to «share (this) responsibility».
According to data collected by the organization, more than 68,000 Venezuelans crossed Darien – a jungle located on the border between Colombia and Panama – between January and August 2022, a rate 2,400 percent higher than in all of 2021.
