The World's Most Dangerous Journey - Part 2

[Music] until now it's been a waiting game in the village of beow okay but today we're heading off you want to take all this no just a snack we've connected with 20 migrants and they're allowing us to document their journey into the jungle where kidnappings and killings are [Music] rif they've come from Southeast Asia and Africa and are risking everything for a chance at a better life in the United States everyone is running away from something the what exactly I'm yet to find out the deryan is a drug trafficking Corridor between Columbia and Panama it's also home to Notorious leftist gorilla Fighters known as farc local guides will take us in boats to the end of the river and then through the jungle on foot our destination is paa a native Village on the Panama side of the deren once inside Panama the migrants will have another six borders to cross before reaching the United States our local guides can mean the difference between living and dying out here as the migrants wait anxiously in the boats a dispute breaks out we nine of n 1 2 three hey I give you the money col the guides are asking for more money 2020 three times they agreed upon price everything no one has any leverage out here $600 [Music] each my local producer and I [Music] negotiate the migrants tell me the locals are profiting from their misery but the villagers themselves suffer poverty and the corrupting effects of the drug trade 300 each 3 each okay it's fine yeah no no it's not fine but we need our guides to keep us safe so we pay up and head off I ride with a Bria a political activist from Gambia Bria tells me he fled after learning his name was on a government Hit List leaving his pregnant wife and two children behind he's never heard of the Darian Gap he just knows there's a jungle he must cross if he wants to reach the United States we leave the water and the hardest part of our Journey Begins we will have to scale steep Ravines and navigate muddy tracks strangled by thick jungle within minutes of stepping Under The Canopy we feel sealed off from the outside world there's no map no coordinates to follow satellite phones rarely get a signal we're aiming for a stone Obelisk that we're told marks the Border if we're lucky we'll get there in 2 days Allah Allah help me Allah Allah Allah Allah [Music] Allah thousands of migrants Trek this route last year some after fleeing the wars in Syria and Afghanistan nobody knows how many died out [Music] here in my experience most refugees are Ordinary People forced to take extraordinary risks ready guys we should be able to keep up this like a who's seeking political asylum in the US like my father who left Iran for a chance at a better life and like Evelyn the only woman in our group are you scared about this trip very very scared but I don't have any choice with the war that we have in camaron B Haram killing all our brothers don't have no choice than to run to go hide ourselves [Music] somewhere she struggles up the muds slick Hills where you can't get a foothold enduring unbearable heat and humidity Evelyn tells me she was a hairdresser in her home country Cameroon now she's in the fiercest of jungles scarcely able to [Music] breathe rotting trees snag at my [Music] feet I've trekked in jungles before but here the Menace and isolation are [Music] incomparable then a reminder of a danger bigger than the jungle itself [Music] [ __ ] s the guy but I always have dreams with the F call like not dreams like I know exist here we [Music] are the skull faces toward Panama presumably a warning to anyone who stairs enter Colombian farc territory we're feeling rattled and move quickly to find the [Music] others traveling in a group gives the comfort of strength and numbers but that's an [Music] illusion we lean on each other but in our minds we're on our [Music] own all of a sudden I got [ __ ] yeah m [Music] drenched in sweat Carlos sucks on [Music] [Music] glucose the jungle is cruel it soaks you as it sucks you dry we're guzzling liter after liter of precious water unsure when we'll find it again and you going to m one of the Bengali says he's feeling feverish and can't go on everything don't thr that one he begs someone to help him carry his b open here and you see everything but there are no takers he's forced to decide which of his meager possessions he can do without so he can keep walking [Music] we had hoped to reach the Border by Nightfall but our pace is slower than expected hey brother man the rows of leaf cutter ants that line the trail make it look easy look at the forest I've never moved in this type of forest since I'm born Liv in Africa I don't know very hard too difficult for a woman is too much for me too much you're the only woman the only woman [Music] after 12 brutal hours hiking in treacherous conditions we finally stop and make camp for the night so we are camping in camping camping until 5:00 morning so tired but you lie down sleep sleep the mosquitoes out here are Relentless and as Darkness Falls their appetite intensifies finish finish thank you zika virus den and yellow fever are all prevalent here what the migrants will sleep in the open fodder for swarming bats and mosquitoes cookies cookies the Bengali wash down vanilla cookies with the last of their water the jungle is not easy you have seen it with your eye traveled for weeks to get this far he traveled from Gambia to Ecuador where entry visas are not required from there he traveled Overland to get to Colombia but this without a doubt is the toughest part of his journey you ever done this tired before no never encountered tiredness like this before never happens to my life this one you going to be okay oh sure sure sure it's going to be okay it's going to be okay you know but it's not easy absolutely sure it's going to be okay I'll make it to the Final Destination yeah man even if AA makes it into Panama there will still be five more countries to cross before reaching the United States it's believed that 25,000 migrants crossed into Panama last year but in the middle of our journey the country's president announces the rules have changed Panama will no longer turn a blind eye to these arrivals instead anyone crossing without permission will be rejected without exception tomorrow will push to the Border we don't know what will happen when we get there good night Neal team [Laughter] ready The Hangover of a rough night's sleep is tempered by the prospect of reaching the Panama border let's move it's a mixture of nerves and excitement the border is hidden somewhere deep in the jungle ahead when we cross it we'll still have at least 30 km to walk to get back to civilization we're anxious about meeting the Panama Border Police called cifr they usually focus on drug trafficking now they have new orders to stop migrants we worry that it could cause problems for the group we're traveling [Music] with just a few more minutes to the border so this is the final push and then we're in Panama let's go [Music] [Music] at last we reached the border of Columbia in Panama the hinge of South and Central America a stone Obelisk Peaks through the trees as a marker the migrants are not out of the dairy end yet but they enjoy the moment as they should go they've just left another continent behind how do you feel you think you can make it all the way one I'll make it inshallah by the grace of God I'll make it because I think the hardest side of the journey is it's almost done what I encounter me I never encountered this throughout my life it's too hot too hardig we're in Panama now and with the Border closed only days ago they could be arrested for helping migrants cross the border remember the panaman law they decide we should split up we got to tell them look man if the police catch you with this guys this guy is going to jail they say the trail is very easy to follow and it's about two hours to the paa river and the village is just after that yeah yeah yeah yes okay okay okay we see you on fire see you take care okay see see as I wave goodbye it crosses my mind I may never see them [Music] again we'll travel separately to maximize everyone's safety we stay with our guides and the migrants walk ahead the guide set a blistering [Music] pace and then they're [Music] gone I become paranoid I'm being set up for an ambush I can't see the guides or Carlos or Roger or cameraman I'm all alone dizzy [Music] lost we prepared 9 months for this journey taking every precaution the migrants came with nothing not knowing what they were getting themselves into out here the line between survival an oblivion is a slippery [Music] one finally Carlos staggers in but there's no sign of the guides I wait a second I have all the money in my bag and they know I have money so maybe they set up an ambush or something like that I'm walking in they hug you yeah you know you disappear here they bury you who the hell is going to find you man and they going back that's it that's it it's hardcore placed like here you don't want to have an enemy on these people really because they can go they hug you yeah It's Tricky man tricky [Music] place with the guides gone we attempt to find the river and a way out of here on our [Music] own our satellite tracker isn't working because of the thick jungle canopy in cloud [Music] cover we have no idea where we are or where the migrants are they'll also be looking for a way out of here with no guides not even a compass so we've been hiking for the last 2 hours with all of our bags and we're Tapped Out On Water we're still up at altitude so we're in a bit of a fix right now we got to get to a water source one way or the other we've got iodine so we can purify it but we need to get something in our system is we're all getting a little dizzy and it's getting darker Carlos is getting desperate he drinks from a dirty puddle he's past caring about sickness and disease [Music] and then we walk right into border Guard [Music] soldiers thank you my friend it's the first time in my life I'm relieved to face the barrel of an automatic rifle is this okay the migrants are here as well they're under armed guard we can't talk to them we film don't record as we're LED away I hear a brma call out to me don't forget about us [Music] brother we have the right passports which means we're free to enter [Music] Panama but in the devastating blow an officer tells us the migrants will all be sent back into the deran given no chance to prove if they are refugees under the UN convention if they'd arrived 5 days earlier their fate would be different and they'd now be continuing north towards the US they might have given him some water but they have to March back up the same way they came into Colombia he said it's a presidential order it's out of his control he's torn but those are the orders so looks like they're all on their way back to Columbia as we speak it's unthinkable the Darian Crossing is the darkest passage of the global migration phenomenon our reporting Bears witness to this journey but we still don't know how the story ends for the 20 migrants we traveled [Music] with I've reached out to some of them but my emails have gone unanswered it's been 4 months since I returned from the deren and my hope of hearing from them is fading but I hope all the [Music] same [Music] [Music]

Channel: Journeyman Pictures

Views: 777,231

Keywords: dangerous, travel, darien gap, amazon jungle dangers, immigrant, dateline, militia, world news, immigration, FARC, current affairs, migrant, drugs, snakes, communist, rainforest, leftist, deadly, sbs australia, cartel, sbs dateline, most dangerous forest in the world, documentary, news, journeyman pictures, army

Id: 6Nv5QWTZyDw

Length: 26min 3sec (1563 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 22 2016