The social media influencers posting from a region with a deadly migration route – DNyuz

It looks like a carefully composed image you might see on an influencer’s social media profile.

Actress Yvonne Pferrer waves her arms above her head and poses barefoot in a jungle stream, sharing a discount code with her 1.6 million followers.

“I feel blessed and never stressed,” the 29-year-old exclaims, encouraging her supporters to grab 10 percent off a brand she has partnered with.

Only the German influencer does not pose against the backdrop of Bali or Thailand, but in the Darien Gap, a region where one of the deadliest migration routes in the world runs.

Hundreds of thousands of migrants risk their lives each year to make the perilous journey through about 60 miles of dense jungle that connect Colombia and Panama, many trying to reach U.S. soil.

Those who undertake the difficult journey face difficult terrain, fast-flowing rivers, disease, dangerous animals, kidnappings and sexual violence by criminal gangs.

So far this year, 96 migrants have died or disappeared during the crossing, the International Organization for Migration said. This is likely an underestimate, they said, as many deaths go unreported.

Another ten migrants drowned in a flooded river near the Panamanian coastal town of Carreto in July during their perilous journey.

Meanwhile, travel agents have organised “epic” treks costing up to £3,500, taking tourists through jungles that have been passed through by more than half a million people, many fleeing poverty and persecution.

Critics have questioned the ethics of running tours in an area rife with human tragedy and despair.

Ms. Pferrer is one of many bloggers who use adventurous treks into the dangerous jungle to fill their social media feeds.

Elias Cornejo, coordinator in Panama for the educational institution Fe y Alegria who has worked in the Darien Gap, said that “these messages are not appropriate under any circumstances” because they “trivialize the suffering of those who have decided to cross the border.”

Professor Lorri Krebs, a tourism and sustainability expert at Salem State University, described the images as “not surprising, but certainly disturbing.”

“I think humanity gets lost in the chase for the best photo or the most controversial location to make TikTok videos,” she said.

Desperate migrants often pay thousands of dollars to smugglers who promise to help them on the difficult journey, but many are soon abandoned and forced to continue on their own.

People who have made the crossing say they have passed dead bodies along the way, been sexually abused and lost loved ones.

Tourists organised by British and German travel agencies can count on the luxury of local guides, hammocks, satellite telephones and catering.

Tourists and migrants rarely meet. The latter limit themselves to the northern coast of the Caribbean Sea, while guided tours are given on the Pacific side.

Ms Pferrer posted daily video diaries of her 2022 journey on her public Instagram account, showing her walking through the rain with a smile and bathing in a river in slow motion.

In a voiceover of a segment from the trip, she said, “I don’t know how we would have fed ourselves without a cook.”

The videos on her account, viewed by The Telegraph, make no mention of the ongoing refugee crisis.

“Is this really the most dangerous jungle in the world? No,” she says in another post.

“All the stories and pictures you hear and see about the Darien Gap have nothing to do with the completely different part.”

Meanwhile, German influencer Johannes Brandt shared topless videos and photos from the middle of the jungle with his 70,000 followers.

His videos from the expedition are accompanied by the caption: “every like, comment and share means so much to me” and many of them include hashtags such as “#party”, “’#relax” and “#happy”.

In a clip, he can be seen looking sultry as he sits topless and washes himself in a stream, with the caption: “I’m truly grateful for every moment in life.”

In another video, he can be seen waving a flag with the logo of Mein Mana, an energy drink company for which he is an ambassador. “Thanks to @‌mein.mana I was always perfectly taken care of in the jungle! #mana #dariengap,” he wrote.

Both Mr Brandt and Ms Pferrer tagged the German travel agency Wandermut in their videos.

The company offers a 10-day jungle trek, which it says is “a place you must see in your lifetime before you get too old.”

“Are you ready for the craziest adventure of your life? Come along if you dare,” writes the company, which charges just over £3,000 for the tour.

While no mention is made of the humanitarian crisis, Wandermut says it will avoid the eastern side of the Darién and the border with Colombia, because “anything else would be reckless”.

The operator also boasted that his head guide “has not had any problems with smugglers or other criminals in the past 20 years thanks to his contacts and experience”.

Meanwhile, Bristol-based Secret Compass organised a 14-day “epic jungle trekking expedition” through the Darien Gap worth £3,500, which was billed as a chance to “cross the final frontier”.

“Join this groundbreaking jungle expedition and become one of the few explorers to walk the Darien Gap,” read a page advertising a tour in April 2024, which has since been removed.

One of the ‘highlights’ of the trip was the opportunity to ‘test your grit and perseverance in an unforgiving environment’.

The website made no mention of the migrant crisis, but did say that if local activities affected the planned route, “the team would undertake a challenging and equally adventurous jungle expedition in another part of the Panamanian jungle”.

Mr. Conejo said last year he had to help a woman who had a miscarriage in the jungle. He has seen children arrive alone and families “broken” by death.

“Do you think this adrenaline rush is a party for them?”

Mr Cornejo said the rates charged by tourism companies were “insulting” and that such an amount could provide humanitarian aid to 300 people.

Prof Krebs said she had spoken to a number of companies running tours of the area who said: “They deliberately don’t mention the humanitarian crisis because then the moral and ethical finger is pointed at them.”

“What I think I see, I don’t know, but it’s maybe more like the appeal of dark tourism: bad things are happening, there’s a humanitarian crisis and then there’s the commodification of that, and I think that’s what some of these people are doing,” she said.

The Panamanian government has previously announced plans to transform Darien National Park into “the premier ecotourism destination in Central America.”

Earlier this year, Panama’s incoming president, José Raúl Mulino, promised to close the Darien Gap and deport anyone attempting to cross the gap.

Tom Bodkin, director of Secret Compass, said the company no longer runs expeditions to the Darien Gap.

He said the company ran the trips “in a completely different area to where the migrant routes run”, about 150km away, and that the company also ran trips to areas including North Korea, Afghanistan and Iraq.

“We hope that traveling to this region will raise people’s awareness of the trauma, exploitation and misery that migrants face on these journeys and that they might seek out more information, talk to locals and gain a better understanding of what motivates migrants to make this journey, how they are received by Panamanians and the challenges they face,” he said.

A source close to Ms Pferrer said influencers and content creators have no responsibility to educate people and that they bear no “responsibility” for humanitarian crises.

They said Ms Pferrer “chose to highlight the crisis and devoted a significant portion of her content to this topic” and that she had reached different demographics than traditional media.

They also said that Ms Pferrer had decided not to “participate in the luxury travel industry” but wanted to show the “dark sides” and that this “extreme travel” benefits the local economy.

They said social creators like Ms Pferrer had to use product placement to “make a living” and “until there are subsidies or other mechanisms for this, nothing will change”.

The Telegraph has contacted Wandermut, Mr Brandt and the Panamanian Tourist Authority for comment.

The post Social media influencers posting from region with deadly migration route first appeared on The Telegraph.