The Gap

The Darien Gap is a jungle between the North and South American continents consisting of a large watershed, forest, and mountains in Panama and Colombia.

When Barret learned that beneath the canopy, countless African, Middle Eastern, and Haitian migrants were risking and, in some cases, losing their lives, he couldn't help but wonder- Why are they there? Why are they dying? Why have I never heard of this? Why is it so hard to find information on the situation? ... and what can be done?

This is a first-person account of a 27-year-old Mississippian searching for a group of migrants in northern Colombia, and joining them on a death-defying journey through the Darien Gap and across the border into Panama.

Read and feel the terror of crossing this ravenous jungle, knowing what it hides while rarely being able to see more than a hundred feet. The hopeless, rainy nights. The emotions stirred by the horrors thrust upon all who pass. The strength of those marching through it.

Barret and the migrants are detained in multiple migrant camps where the reader gets a chilling insight into the fear, frustration, and dissociation which comes with finding yourself in them. Walk through these camps and listen to the hopes, dreams, and fears of migrants from around the world as they cross the deadliest leg of the world's greatest migration.

This story, which takes place in the first half of 2021, is a thrilling report on current affairs. In The Gap, Barret also deals with personal struggles, the hunt for perspective, and the difficulties of trying to juggle surviving the jungle,being a photographer and journalist, doing all things as respectfully/morally as possible, watching his own back 24 hours a day, and remembering that it was all illegal.