The START Team assisted more than 500 people in eleven days on its first mission in Darién

Eduardo González Last week, the first START rotation team returned to Madrid after completing an eleven-day mission in the indigenous community of Bajo Chiquito, in the Panamanian province of Darién, a jungle region that connects Panama with Colombia and through which more than 250,000 Venezuelan, Ecuadorian, Haitian and Colombian refugees and migrants have passed so far The first START (Spanish Technical Aid Response Team) team left for the region on September 18 and, since then, its members have provided healthcare to both the local population and migrants crossing this dangerous border region. The team, made up of an emergency doctor and nurse, a pediatrician, a midwife and an epidemiologist, has treated an average of 40 people a day, with special attention to women and children under 15 years of age. Of the total number of patients, 30% have been children under five years of age, according to the AECID in a press release. One of the most relevant aspects of this intervention has been the large number of pregnant women, both local and migrants, who have required specialized care. The presence of a midwife in the team has allowed ultrasound diagnoses to be made, which has been vital to improve prenatal care in the area. 23% of the patients treated have been classified as vulnerable. The causes of vulnerability include migrant children from zero to three years old, pregnant women under 18 years old, unaccompanied minors, adults over 55 years old, people with disabilities, chronic pathologies, as well as victims of sexual, domestic or other violence. During their stay, the team has worked in close coordination with the Ministry of Health of Panama, local indigenous authorities and international organizations present in the region. In addition to health interventions, Spanish professionals have shared experiences and collaborated in the distribution of food, strengthening ties with the community. The second rotation of the START team, which has already been in the field for two days, has been reinforced with an additional doctor and an emergency nurse, to continue providing medical support to the population of Bajo Chiquito in the coming weeks. More than 250,000 Venezuelan, Ecuadorian, Haitian and Colombian migrants and refugees have crossed the so-called Darien Gap, one of the most dangerous migration routes in the world, so far in 2024, in an attempt to reach the United States. Since 2020, the number of migrants crossing the Darien Gap has skyrocketed from 8,000 to almost 500,000 in 2023, according to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), which has specified that the migrants are mainly citizens of Venezuela (almost 60%), followed by Haiti, Ecuador and, more recently, China. On July 1, King Felipe VI expressed to the President of Panama, José Raúl Mulino, on the occasion of his inauguration, his concern about the humanitarian crisis in the Darien. Since its launch in 2018, the START team (known as the "red vests") has carried out humanitarian missions in Mozambique (after Cyclone Idai in 2019), Bata (Equatorial Guinea, after the explosion of a gunpowder depot that devastated part of the city in 2021), Haiti (after the earthquake in August 2021), Turkey (after the earthquake in 2023), apart from Darien. The START project, whose medical team belongs to the public health system, has the capacity to be deployed, within a maximum of 72 hours, to any corner of the world where a humanitarian emergency occurs. Spain is, together with Italy and France, one of the three EU countries to have such a team.

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