A boat carrying 19 migrants — part of a “reverse flow” of migrants who once hoped to reach the United States — capsized off the Caribbean coast of Panama on Saturday, claiming the life of an 8-year-old Venezuelan boy, border authorities said.
Panama has not shared figures on how many migrants in the “reverse flow” pass through the country per day, but in neighboring Costa Rica, an official told The Associated Press this week they were seeing between 50 and 75 new migrants traveling south daily.
One pair of migrants who spoke to AP said they wanted to take the marine route because it was safer than traveling through the perilous jungled trenches of the Darien Gap, which divides Panama and Colombia.
A growing number of migrants who once hoped to reach the U.S. have begun a “reverse flow” back to their countries of origin due to a tightening of immigration policy under U.S. President Donald Trump.
With few resources or ways to get home, many South American migrants have started to travel home to their Andean countries with the help of smugglers.
