Professor Pia Riggirozzi, Dr Natalia Cintra, and Dr Jose Miranda from the University of Southampton make a case for coordinated regional policies to ensure migrants’ access to essential nutrition and dignity during transit.
Irregular migration in Central America, particularly through dangerous routes like the Darién Gap, has gained attention due to multiple challenges such as violence, exploitation, and hazardous conditions. A less-discussed but critical aspect of this crisis is the food insecurity faced by migrants, especially forced migrants during their journey and upon arrival at impoverished camps and sites. Food insecurity is a global public health challenge and a vital component of the human right to an adequate standard of living, as outlined in UN Sustainable Development Goal 2 (zero hunger).
The impact of food insecurity is disproportionately severe on vulnerable groups, particularly women and children. Forced migration is closely linked with rising hunger, gendered violence, and poverty, all of which increase the risk for these groups (Cintra et al 2023). As thousands of people traverse these routes with the hope of reaching countries like the United States, food shortages and malnutrition emerge as a constant and serious challenge.
The Dimension of Food Insecurity in Migratory Transit
Food insecurity in the context of irregular migration is not an isolated problem but a widespread and worsening issue. Forcibly displaced migrants face precarious conditions, including the lack of access to nutritious food, exacerbating their already weakened physical and psychological states (COMISCA 2024). This issue is especially acute in Mesoamerica, where thousands of migrants of various nationalities cross the Darién Gap, a perilous jungle dividing South and Central America. The number of migrants crossing the Darién has dramatically increased, with official data indicating that approximately 70,000 migrants had crossed by 2024, 20% of whom were children and adolescents, according to official data.
Migrants passing through the Darién Gap face extreme food insecurity as access to basic resources is virtually non-existent. They are forced to rely on unsafe food and contaminated water, leading to severe health issues, especially for those already experiencing malnutrition due to crises in their home countries, such as Venezuela. The scarcity of food is exacerbated by criminal gangs that control parts of the route, further limiting access to essential supplies.
Impact on Migrants’ Health
Food insecurity has severe consequences for both the physical and mental health of migrants. Children are particularly susceptible to malnutrition-related illnesses such as diarrhoea, gastrointestinal infections, and severe dehydration. Humanitarian organisations like Doctors Without Borders (MSF) and UNICEF report rising cases of acute malnutrition among children migrating through the Darién Gap. Pregnant and breastfeeding women also face critical health risks due to the lack of nutrient-rich food, endangering both their health and that of their children.
In addition to physical health, food insecurity affects migrants’ mental well-being. The psychological distress caused by trauma during their journey, compounded by food scarcity, can lead to increased anxiety, stress, and depression. Parental guilt over children’s suffering and the perceived loss of dignity due to living in inhumane conditions only heightens this mental strain, as Leung et al (2022) reported. Limited autonomy over food and routines during transit further exacerbates feelings of depression and powerlessness.
Regional Coordination and Response to Food Insecurity Among Migrants
While the international community has intervened in various aspects of managing the migration crisis in Latin America, the response to food insecurity has been fragmented and insufficient. Food insecurity disproportionately affects migrants in transit, exacerbating their already vulnerable conditions as they move through often hostile environments. At the regional level, policies aimed at addressing these challenges frequently lack coordination between countries, leaving significant gaps in the provision of food and other essential resources for migrants. To ensure a more effective response, regional cooperation and shared responsibility must become the cornerstone of addressing this crisis.
At a local level, migrant reception stations and camps across Central America provide basic food rations, but these are often insufficient to meet the nutritional needs of individuals weakened by arduous journeys. The poor quality of food and inadequate storage conditions fail to meet health standards, and logistical challenges, such as a lack of resources, further strain local authorities’ ability to ensure food security. The response to these issues remains largely reactive, addressing immediate crises without preparing for future ones.
To effectively address food insecurity among migrants, a more coordinated and regional response is required. The Council of Ministers of Health of Central America and the Dominican Republic (SE-COMISCA) emphasises that food security should be a regional priority. Current mechanisms addressing migration and forced displacement are fragmented and operate based on the individual priorities of each state, rather than under a unified framework of shared responsibility. Migration through Central America is characterised by its transient nature, with migrants spending only temporary periods in each country. Without a regional response, issues unaddressed in one country place additional strain on another along the migratory path. This highlights the need for cooperation to ensure that service pressure is distributed evenly across the region.
Migration governance, however, remains largely at the national level, without a robust multilateral framework to handle the regional dynamics of migration and food insecurity. A shared responsibility model, where countries equitably distribute the costs, benefits, and burdens of forced migration, is needed. This includes building infrastructure for migrant reception centres and establishing systems for monitoring nutrition and health conditions across the region. These measures would improve the capacity of transit and receiving countries to provide adequate care for migrants.
Strengthening partnerships between regional organisations, international bodies, and local actors is essential for creating a cohesive strategy that addresses the underlying causes of food insecurity and ensures the sustained well-being of migrants in transit.
Future Challenges and Recommendations
Food insecurity among migrants in transit will continue to be a critical problem unless the structural causes are addressed. The massive and constant flow of migrants in the region demands greater investment not only in reception infrastructure but also in the creation of food policies that are sustainable and adaptable to the challenging conditions of the displacement environment. Creating approaches that ensure rights while in transit should be a regional concern, involving all those countries in the transit pathway. While migrants in transit are protected by few frameworks of rights, minimum conditions must be met, regardless of the temporary nature of their stay.
Food insecurity among migrants in transit will persist unless its structural causes are addressed. The constant flow of migrants in the region requires greater investment not only in reception infrastructure but also in developing sustainable food policies that adapt to the challenges of displacement. Regional cooperation is essential to ensure that migrants’ rights to food and water are upheld, regardless of the temporary nature of their stay.
To tackle this overlooked dimension of the migration crisis, regional policies must guarantee migrants’ access to gender and culturally appropriate nutrition, clean water, and dignified eating spaces throughout their journey. Intersectoral partnerships between national governments, international organisations, and local actors are needed to reinforce national responses and create a shared framework for addressing food insecurity. A multilateral coordinated approach prioritising human rights and well-being is key to ensuring that migrants in transit receive the food security and care they need.
The views expressed in this post are those of the author and in no way reflect those of the International Development LSE blog or the London School of Economics and Political Science.
Featured image: In just the first six months of 2023, over 40,000 Latin American and Caribbean children have left their homes. (Reuters pic). Via FMT.
