UNICEF / DARIEN GAP CHILDREN

STORY: UNICEF / DARIEN GAP CHILDREN
TRT: 4:27
SOURCE: UNICEF
RESTRICTIONS: PLEASE CREDIT UNICEF ON SCREEN
LANGUAGE: NATS
DATELINE: 18 NOVEMBER 2022, DARIEN, PANAMA

SHOTLIST:
1. Wide shot, Hannan Sulieman, UNICEF Deputy Executive Directo2, and Sandie Blanchet, UNICEF representative in Panama, talking to SENAFRONT authorities, entrance of Migrant Reception Center of Lajas Blancas
2. Med shot, Sulieman and Blanchet, walking by CFS and Self Care Space
3. Wide shot, Sulieman and Blanchet talking to SENAFRONT authorities while they walk through the migrant station towards the river
4. Wide shot, Sulieman and Blanchet, talking to Margarita Sanchez, UNICEF child protection officer, while they walk through the migrant station towards the river
5. Wide shot, Sulieman with Blanchet, Sanchez, and SENAFRONT officers, approaching the river
6. Wide shot, boat with migrants arriving at MRS Lajas Blancas
7. Wide shot, second boat with migrants arriving at MRS Lajas Blancas
8. Wide lateral shot, migrants walking towards the Migrant station
9. Wide shot, migrants walking toward the Migrant station
10. Wide shot, Sulieman, Blanchet, Sanchez, and SENAFRONT officers by the SENAFRONT post
11. Med shot, Sulieman talking to migrants
12. Wide shot Sulieman, Blanchet, Sanchez, and RET officer at child-friendly space
13. Med shot, Sulieman, Sanchez, and RET officer at child-friendly space
14. Med shot, Sulieman with UNICEF collaborator at child-friendly space
15. Med shot, Sulieman and Blancher talking to girls and women at Self-Care space
16. Close up, girl at the Child-friendly space
17. Various shots, children in the Child-friendly space
18. Close up, little boy in the Child-friendly space
19. Close up, drawing at the Child-friendly space
20. Wide shot, traveling migrant queue waiting to get into the bus
21. Wide shot, line of migrants waiting for food

STORYLINE:
According to UNICEF, since the beginning of this year, the number of migrant children crossing the dangerous Darien Gap between Colombia and Panama on foot has hit an all-time high.

From January to October, some 32,488 children crossed the Darien Gap toward the United States, surpassing the total figure recorded for 2021 by 10 percent.

Additionally, a record number of unaccompanied children, estimated to be around 900, crossed the Darien Gap in 2022, quadrupling the previous year’s total.

Each migrant represents a life of great hardship.

During the day’s long trek through the jungle, children and families are exposed to multiple forms of violence, including sexual abuse, trafficking, exploitation, a lack of safe water and food, insect bites, wild animal attacks, and overflowing rivers.

Children under five, around 50 percent of all migrant children, are particularly vulnerable to diarrhoea, dehydration, and other communicable diseases.

Additionally, the stress and danger associated with this perilous journey leaves many children at risk of emotional trauma.

With support from the European Union and the United States, and in close collaboration with the government and other partners, UNICEF has scaled its presence from one to five reception centres at the borders of Colombia, Costa Rica, and Panama City.

The centres provide safe drinking water, hygiene supplies, psychosocial and health services to thousands of children and pregnant women on the move, as well as to the host communities that live in dire poverty.

From January to October 2022, some 211,355 migrants crossed the Darien Gap to continue to their destination.

Children, who represent 15 percent of people on the move, are deprived for months, if not years, of education, health, nutrition services, and even their identity documents.