Migration through the Darien Gap is cut off following the capture of boat captains in Colombia

The flow of thousands of migrants daily through the treacherous migratory highway, the Darien Gap, has been cut off following the capture of a number of boat captains who had been ferrying the migrants to the starting point of their jungle trek.

The stoppage began when Colombian law enforcement captured two boat captains in the northern city of Necoclí on Monday. The companies that employed them halted all transport services in protest, effectively cutting off the officially estimated 2,000 people a day that enter the jungled passage hoping to reach the United States.

It has led to a build up of as many as 8,000 people waiting to cross between Colombia and Panama, the Colombia’s Ombudsman’s Office confirmed Thursday. The office, a governmental human rights watchdog, has warned that the buildup could “overwhelm the health system, food supply, among other things."

“We can't wait until things collapse and it ends in a violation of human rights” of already vulnerable migrant populations, said Carlos Camargo Assis, the head of the office.

The chaos has once again underscored the long road ahead for officials in Latin America and the United States as they struggle to take on record levels of migration, and unravel the increasingly lucrative migrant trafficking industry.

President Joe Biden has pressured Colombia and other Latin American nations to crack down on regional migration headed to the U.S. southern border. While many Latin American countries have boosted enforcement, the jungles of the Darien Gap have remained a lawless swath of the migratory route north, largely controlled by Colombia’s most powerful drug gang, the Gulf Clan.

Last year, more than 500,000 people crossed the Darien Gap, many traveling from Venezuela,