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Just the highlights of a longer article. [TheWorld] The US government changed the rules governing how people can seek asylum at the US-Mexico border last week, as a pandemic-era policy called Title 42 expired. Although it may become more difficult, thousands of people are still making their way from South America to the US border, including migrants colonists from all over the world. Some are making their way through the Darien Gap, a dangerous jungle that separates Colombia and Panama.
| Many of them saved up thousands of dollars to make the trip — having been doctors, NGO workers, politicians or media workers back home. |
Abdul Bais hung a leather briefcase over his shoulder, as he got ready to board a speedboat in Necocli, a town near Colombia’s border with Panama. It stood out among the other migrants colonists around him, who mostly carried worn-out backpacks.
Inside the neatly arranged briefcase, he kept diplomatic passports and letters that showed he came from Afghanistan, and had worked as a diplomat for the government that was removed by the Taliban
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 ...Arabic for students ...
in 2021.
Bais hoped that the documents could help him to show immigration officers in the United States that he was running away from the Taliban regime, had a credible fear of returning to his country, and could qualify for asylum.
But to get to the southern border, he still had to cross all of Central America and Mexico, and before that, trek through the Darien Gap — a dense and roadless swath of jungle that stands between Colombia and Panama.
"In this world, no one has helped us," said Bais, who traveled with his wife, three children and two other Afghan families fleeing the Taliban regime.
None of them had ever been in a rainforest before, or gone on a trek that can last several days. But, Bais said, they had run out of options.
"We are trying our best to reach somewhere that is safe, especially for our families."
Thousands of people from South America, Africa and Asia are making their way to the US border, following the expiration of Title 42, a public health policy that was used to block hundreds of thousands of asylum requests during the pandemic.
The journey across countries like Colombia, Panama and Mexico is difficult for Afghans, especially because they don’t speak Spanish and are unfamiliar with local customs.
Many of them saved up thousands of dollars to make the trip — having been doctors, NGO workers, politicians or media workers back home.
But their connections and relatively high income levels have now also turned them into targets for criminal groups in Latin America, according to Rafael Velasquez, the Mexico country director for the International Rescue Committee.
"We know of at least a dozen cases of Afghan people being detained by organized crime [in Mexico] and money being asked for ransom," he said. "Unfortunately, their profile has become of interest for organized crime."
He added that Afghans are also targeted by corrupt coppers, who seek bribes to let them continue on their journeys.
STRIPPED OF DIPLOMATIC STATUS
Bais worked for Afghanistan’s Embassy in Iran
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate Jews Zionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol...
in 2021 when the Taliban came into power, and it wasn’t possible for him to return to the capital, Kabul.
So, along with most of the Embassy staff, he stayed in Iran and continued to work there, representing Afghanistan’s toppled democratic government.
But in February, Iran handed the Afghan Embassy in Tehran over to the Taliban regime. Bais was stripped of his diplomatic status, and his visa was canceled, even though it was still supposed to be valid for several more months.
He’s not the only Afghan undertaking this dangerous route.
According to Panama’s immigration authority, more than 3,000 refugees from Afghanistan have crossed the Darien jungle since the Taliban takeover in August 2021, trying to reach the United States.
But it’s a journey that is costly and is fraught with risks.
The journey has been costly and dangerous, but Bais said he will not desist from reaching the US where his family plans to turn themselves in to border patrol agents and test their luck with the new immigration policies.
"We don’t have any second option," he said in a recent phone call. He added that his family has long passed the point of no return. 
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