A dramatic reversal of migration patterns is unfolding across the Americas following President Trump's sweeping cuts to international aid programs, creating a humanitarian emergency.
Since January 2025, when the Trump administration slashed 83% of US international funding and suspended USAID operations, there has been an 83% decrease in northbound migration through Colombia. Simultaneously, thousands of migrants are traveling southward in a phenomenon experts call "reverse irregular migratory flow."
Action Against Hunger is uniquely positioned to speak on this crisis as one of the few organizations with operational bases throughout affected regions, including in El Darien - the dangerous jungle corridor between Colombia and Panama. The organization's Senior Advisor on Migration, Miguel Angel Garcia Arias and Benedetta Lettera, Head of Operations for Latin America, are available for interviews in English and Spanish.
This shift in migratory patterns presents serious humanitarian challenges:
- Migrants who exhausted resources traveling north now face dangerous maritime journeys southward, with drowning being the leading cause of migrant deaths (48% of cases in Colombia).
- In Panama alone, over 1,000 migrants are stranded without resources to continue their return journey.
- Pregnant women, children, and families are trapped in remote coastal villages like Miramar, sleeping outdoors with minimal access to water, sanitation, or medical care.
- Life-saving nutrition programs serving 1.5 million people globally have been suspended, with 797,000 at immediate risk.
Although the reverse migration flow is due primarily to US migration policy changes, there are also specific migration restrictions in countries like Panama and the closure or difficult access to "traditional" migration routes like Darien Gap, forcing people to come back from the north towards the south again. Action Against Hunger's spokespeople can provide first-hand accounts of how aid cuts have impacted the humanitarian situation in key migration hubs, including the suspension of critical nutrition and health programs and the immediate impact on children and other vulnerable populations. They can also address specific maritime migration routes and associated dangers.