Copyright The New York Times
A 3-year-old child died after a boat carrying migrants toward Colombia capsized off Panama’s Caribbean Coast, Panamanian officials confirmed on Sunday. The boat capsized off the coast of Colón Province and was carrying 21 people, who were pulled from the sea “thanks to the opportune intervention of a private vessel,” Panamanian officials said in a statement. They said the authorities then responded to help in rescue efforts. The child, who officials said was originally from Colombia, was given CPR, but could not be revived. A Panamanian official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to provide information, confirmed that the migrants’ boat had been traveling not northward toward the United States, but in the direction of Colombia. This is the second known case of a child drowning on a new migrant route that sprouted up early this year to help shuttle people back toward their home countries in South America after the Trump administration virtually sealed the U.S. border to migrants. It warned those who had crossed into the United States and lacked legal status to “self deport” or be hunted down. In February, an 8-year-old boy from Venezuela drowned when his family’s boat capsized in rough seas. As of late September, Panamanian officials say, more than 14,000 migrants this year have ridden on small boats along Panama’s Caribbean and Pacific coasts in an attempt to skirt the fearsome roadless jungle pass between Panama and Colombia known as the Darien Gap. The authorities have all but sealed that passageway in an effort, alongside American officials, to stop a multiyear surge in northbound migration. The so-called reverse migration route is run by small operations staffed by fishermen and captains of pleasure craft, and advertised on TikTok. These take migrants as far as the Panamanian border, where they board other boats to reach Colombia. The route is sought out by migrants who lack passports or funds to pay for flights, according to many migrants interviewed by The New York Times earlier this year. The majority are Venezuelan. Many travel overland — often from Mexico, occasionally all the way from the United States — then pay around $300 per person for a seat on small boats with outboard motors. The Panamanian authorities have been allowing the boats to proceed after they stop at a checkpoint where migration officials can count those on board. The journey from the small ports around the city of Colón to the Colombian border can take as long as 10 hours, depending on conditions at sea. Migrants generally wear life jackets — including children — but receive no safety training. On Sunday, the Panamanian authorities said the boat that capsized had been operated by a Colombian national who was licensed as a fisherman and whose outfit “did not meet the conditions for the transport of passengers.” The boat, which had departed from an unauthorized port, the authorities said, had been carrying 18 adults and three minors. It was not immediately clear whether other passengers were injured or hospitalized.
