(AFP) – A boat with 19 migrants from Venezuela and Colombia and two crew sank off Panama, border police in charge of the rescue operation said Saturday. The migrants were returning from Mexico and Central America en route to Colombia after being blocked from entering the US by President Donald Trump’s strict new border rules.
The vessel sank in Caribbean waters Friday night “due to strong waves caused by bad weather,” Panama’s Senafront border service reported. The fate of the occupants was not immediately known. On Friday, AFP witnessed several boats departing from a rudimentary dock at the port of Carti in northern Panama, with dozens of migrants onboard.
“What else were we going to do but return (home)?” a Venezuelan migrant said of the decision. “We’ve been stranded for over 15 days, going round and round from Mexico to here (Panama) and scraping together money out of nowhere.”
Since Trump took office on January 20, hundreds of South American migrants denied entry to the United States have begun the arduous journey back home, traveling in stages by foot, bus or boat and passing through shelters along the way. Many had already made the perilous trek north through the infamous Darien jungle, facing wild animals, rough terrain and predatory criminal gangs.
© 2024 AFP
