US President Donald Trump hardline anti-immigration policies are forcing a growing number of migrants who had reached Mexico to head back south. For many it would mean a dangerous track back through the Darien Gap, a stretch of nearly impenetrable rain forest along the border with Colombia.

In recent years it served as a migratory highway as more than 1.2 million. traveled north. The migrants also somewhat reinvigorated the border towns ‘economies paying for boat rides, clothing, meals and water after grueling and often deadly treks. The newly found opportunities have forced many residents like in Necocli to abandon their farms and planting rice and turn toward carrying migrants across the rivers into Panama.

Al Jazeera