U.N. predicts at least 60,000 minors bound for the United States are set to cross Darien Gap

The United Nations expects that by the end of 2023, children will make up one-fifth of all migrants who will hike through the perilous Darien Gap, the jungle that connects Panama with Colombia.

More than 300,000 migrants are set to transit through the jungle and over 60,000 could be minors, according to Diana Romero, the emergency specialist for the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) in Panama.

'Our call to the families that are going to make the decision is to review it well,' Romero told Reuters.

The expected surge in minors traveling through the Darien Gap has been sparked by families fleeing poverty and violence for better opportunities in the United States over the last four years.

Of the 248,000 migrants who traveled through the jungle last year, 40,438 were minors, UNICEF data showed.

The agency also noted that more than 4,800 children and adolescents trekked through the dangerous rainforest in January, a seven-fold increase compared with the same period a year ago.

At least 36 people died in the Darien Gap in 2022, according to the International Organization Migration.

The UNICEF figures were released following last Wednesday's accident in Panamá that left at least 39 migrants dead after a bus transporting more than 60 migrants fell off a cliff.

Panamanian authorities said the group had previously crossed from Colombia through the Darien Gap.

The accident was the worst involving migrants in the Central American nation in almost a decade.

Romero said that the incident highlighted the importance of improving the 'living conditions' of people who were migrating.

She also said that many of those arriving in Panama said they would not have exposed their children if they had known about the area's dangers before the trip.

A new, stricter U.S. migration policy has resulted in many being returned to Panama, where they often cannot afford transportation back to Venezuela.

The Biden administration's expansion of Title 42 resulted in a decrease of Cuban, Haitian, Nicaraguan and Venezuelan migrants who were encountered by U.S. Border Patrol agents for unlawful crossing the U.S.-Mexico border during the first three weeks of January.

Panamá and Colombia agreed last week to hold joint military operations in the Darien Gap to combat migration as well as drug trafficking and illegal mining.

Migrants crossing through the jungle regularly must pay smugglers to be guide them.

Some become exposed to criminal organizations, who use them to traffic drugs while women are at risk of being sexually abused.

'We have to face the criminality of the Clan del Golfo,' Colombia's Defense Minister Ivan Velasquez said in a statement. 'Strengthening intelligence and being able to identify large organizations that could be in league with the Clan del Golfo or independently carrying out criminal activities is a fundamental issue.'