Stalled by pandemic, migrants press in quest for better life

Women and children sit idle at a migrant camp amid the new coronavirus pandemic in Lajas Blancas, Darien province, Panama, Saturday, Aug. 29, 2020. In Lajas Blancas, the migrants did not wear masks or practice social distancing, but Panama's Public Security Minister Juan Pino said there have not been more than 10 infections among the migrants. (AP Photo/Arnulfo Franco)

Migrants gather under trees at a migrant camp amid the new coronavirus pandemic in Lajas Blancas, Darien Province, Panama, Saturday, Aug. 29, 2020. Nearly 2,000 migrants from Haiti and a handful of African and Asian countries are stuck in camps in the jungle along Panama's northern and southern borders because the new coronavirus pandemic has forced a halt on migration. (AP Photo/Arnulfo Franco)

A migrant child peeks out from under a tent at a migrant camp amid the new coronavirus pandemic, in Lajas Blancas, Darien province, Panama, Saturday, Aug. 29, 2020. Panama's government says it has built, along with the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, a new camp with better shelter on the outskirts of Meteti where it hopes to soon move 400 migrants, especially families with young children. (AP Photo/Arnulfo Franco)

The Lajas Blancas migrant camp stands, amid the new coronavirus pandemic in Darien province, Panama, Saturday, Aug. 29, 2020. The camp is in a grassy field with tarps on wooden platforms packed tight between a dirt road and the brown waters the Chucunaque river. (AP Photo/Arnulfo Franco)

Women with children sit on a log at a migrant camp in Lajas Blancas, Darien province, Panama, Saturday, Aug. 29, 2020. Panama, a transit point for virtually every migrant heading from South America to the United States, closed its borders on March 16 to halt the spread of COVID-19. (AP Photo/Arnulfo Franco)

Duperat Laurette sits on a log with a girl at the entrance of a migrant shelter in Lajas Blancas, Darien province, Panama, Saturday, Aug. 29, 2020. The 45-year-old Haitian migrant and her husband emerged from the thick jungle that blankets the Panama-Colombia border here in Darien seven months earlier and have advanced no farther because of the new coronavirus pandemic. (AP Photo/Arnulfo Franco)

Haitian migrant Jean Bernadeau show insects bites on a girl's legs, at a migrant camp amid the new coronavirus pandemic in Lajas Blancas, Darien province, Panama, Saturday, Aug. 29, 2020. "We know there is a strong illness out there. We can't stay here forever." Said Bernadeau, a who arrived from Chile after living there for five years and saving $4,000 to continue his journey, "Here we live like prisoners in a jail." He said. (AP Photo/Arnulfo Franco)

Haitian migrant Duperat Laurette poses for a photo at the entrance of a migrant camp amid the new coronavirus pandemic in Lajas Blancas, Darien province, Panama, Saturday, Aug. 29, 2020. Laurette, 45, and her husband arrived at the Panamanian border with Colombia seven months ago and have advanced no farther. There are no opportunities for work in the jungle, and she and her husband have exhausted their money. (AP Photo/Arnulfo Franco)

Brand new shelters for migrants stand ready to be occupied amid the new coronavirus pandemic, in San Vicente, Darien province, Panama, Saturday, Aug. 29, 2020. The new shelters will house at least 400 migrants, most of them families with children. (AP Photo/Arnulfo Franco)

Women and children rest under a water tank at a migrant camp in Lajas Blancas, Darien province, Panama, Saturday, Aug. 29, 2020. The flow of migrants through the dense and dangerous Darien jungle has been going strong for more than a decade. This is the first time authorities have stopped it because of the ongoing new coronavirus pandemic. (AP Photo/Arnulfo Franco)