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.
The boat, full of mostly Venezuelans and Colombians, carried 21 people in total, including two Indigenous Panamanians in charge of maneuvering the vessel headed toward Colombia.
Authorities say the accident happened because of choppy sea conditions, which discouraged two other boats from making the trip. Twenty people were rescued, Panamanian border police confirmed, adding they “are deeply sorry about the death of the minor.”
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.
Many of those migrants waited for months, sometimes more than a year, to apply for formal asylum in the U.S. using the Biden-era CBP One app. Those hopes were washed away when Trump took office and immediately closed down the app.
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.
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. They often use small, motorized boats that travel through the Guna Yala, an archipelago with hundreds of small islands in the Caribbean.
The boats often make trips between nearby coastal communities in Colombia and Panama.
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.
Smugglers once raked in money when migration flows north were heavy more than a year ago, and continue to make a smaller profit on migrants traveling back.
Panama’s National Coastal Service said in a statement that Saturday’s boat capsizing was due to heavy swells in the archipelago. Border police and villagers were carrying out search and rescue efforts.
Meanwhile, dozens of other migrants were being transported on Saturday to Guna Yala to begin their return by sea.
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