The initiative will focus on a range of needs, including health, housing and hygiene, while ensuring dignified treatment and upholding their rights, according to the UNSG’s Spokesperson Stephane Dujarric.

The program, which will be presented this week by the UN Mission in Costa Rica, heeds particularly on women and children, since the latter make up almost a fifth of the people in transit.

According to agency figures, over half a million people entered Costa Rica from Panama in 2023, more than double than the previous year.

By 2023, the UN team in San Jose, in collaboration with partners, supported over 84,000 people with medical assistance, legal advice on migration, voluntary return, food aid, hygiene kits and care in safe spaces.

In December, the UN spurred to take urgent measures in the face of the growing humanitarian emergency in Latin America due to the unprecedented number of migrants crossing the dangerous Darien jungle, a region of dense rainforest along the Panama-Colombia border.

The route through Central America to the United States is considered one of the most dangerous in the world, with displaced people at risk of disease, natural hazards, sexual and gender-based violence, robbery and kidnapping. Others fall victims to human traffickers who force them to pay exorbitant sums of money.

ef/omr/rgh/ebr