U.S.-bound migrants fill Colombia town as COVID-19 border closures lifted

A migrant and his daughter are seen next to a boat as they wait to cross into Panama to continue their journey toward the U.S., in Necocli, Colombia August 5, 2021. REUTERS/Henry Esquivel

NECOCLI, Colombia (Reuters) - After traveling for more than a year by ship, bus and car from Africa in hope of reaching the United States, Simon Gyamfi found himself stuck in a remote tourist resort on the coast of Colombia with thousands of other migrants.

The 42-year-old carpenter, a Christian, fled his home in Ghana because of a dispute with his late wife's Muslim family, he said, and took a month-long ocean voyage to Brazil. The closure of borders due to the coronavirus pandemic left him stranded there for months.