Migrants flounder in Colombian migration point without the money to go on

NECOCLI, Colombia — For Venezuelan Jennifer Serrano, $1,000 is a fortune beyond reach. Without it, she has no hope of continuing with her three children and husband on the long road to the U.S., which first means crossing the dangerous Darien Gap jungle.

She has to gather the money in Colombian pesos because the devalued bolivars of her native Venezuela don’t add up.

Her children — aged 9, 8 and 5 — are constantly throwing up, sick with diarrhea and the flu from living in plastic tents on the beach of Necocli, a coastal Colombian town near the Darien jungle that forms the natural border between Colombia and Panama.

They arrived two months ago and for now see little chance of leaving.

“We didn’t know it would be so expensive. They had told me it would cost 160,000 pesos ($37) to travel through the Darien and we brought no more than 400,000 pesos ($93) and that’s gone to food and the children have gotten ill,” said Serrano, 29.

Her situation isn’t unique in Necocli. It is common to see migrants selling basic necessities like food and water or asking for help from any new faces they see arriving to gather money to continue on the route north.

The town’s local economy has shifted, now revolving around the migrants who have been arriving for several years.

Those hanging around no longer number in the thousands, as in 2021 after Haiti’s earthquake. Now there are just dozens, but they are stuck, most of them Venezuelans and a few from Asia and from other Latin American countries.

It’s common for houses to rent rooms by the day and for people on the streets to sell survival equipment for the jungle — rubber boots, water purification tablets, raincoats, plastic bags, water.

Sitting in a plastic chair on the town’s main street, Carolina García, 25, breastfeeds her 2-year-old daughter while offering water, soft drinks or cigarettes for less than a dollar…