The air pollution of migration within the Darién hits the indigenous communities of Panama | América Futura | EUROtoday

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A resident of Villa Caleta in entrance of a tv that reveals Donald Trump, president of the United States, in April 2025. Photo: Matias Delacroix (AP) | Video: AP

Premises have denounced the consequences on the Esmeraldas river, water supply for the Embera individuals

Carolina Mejía

The site visitors of migrants within the Darién cap, which reached its essential level with half one million individuals crossing it in 2023, has decreased, however the tens of millions of people that handed via the jungle shared by Colombia and Panama left excessive ranges of air pollution that primarily have an effect on indigenous communities. Although the circulation of the path to the US has diminished, the rubbish that the walkers have been leaving of their path has brought about the Esmeraldas river to produce the Embera individuals in Panama, generate ailments among the many inhabitants.

The locals report that they’ve stopped utilizing river water to wash after noticing pores and skin situations. Panamanian environmental authorities say that among the many river pollution are rubbish, fecal matter and even our bodies of migrants who died alongside the way in which and couldn’t be collected by the inaccessibility of the territory. The locals say that now their fish smells like gasoline via the motors of the ships that transported immigrants outdoors the jungle.

The authorities estimate that the humanitarian disaster left 2,500 tons of rubbish within the Darien plug and that cleansing it alongside the immigration route will price round 12 million {dollars}.

About the agency

Carolina Mejía

Video editor in El País multimedia workforce in Mexico City. She has a level in Communication and Journalism Sciences from the National Autonomous University of Mexico, with a specialty in audiovisual manufacturing and research on the University of University Lumière Lyon 2.

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A Stryker armed vehicle travels through the border between the United States and Mexico on April 22, 2025.

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https://elpais.com/america-futura/2025-05-09/la-contaminacion-de-la-migracion-en-el-darien-golpea-a-las-comunidades-indigenas-de-panama.html