At least 39 migrants were killed and about 20 injured early Wednesday morning when the bus they were traveling in western Panama fell off a cliff, authorities said.
Authorities did not immediately provide nationalities, but the migrants had crossed the treacherous Darien Gap from Colombia. The Panamanian government usually transfers migrants who have crossed the Darién to a camp near the border with Costa Rica, on the other side of Panama.
Samira Gozaine, director of Panama’s National Migration Service, said the bus driver appeared to have passed the entrance to a shelter and when he tried to turn around to get back on the road, the bus collided with another bus and fell off the road. the precipice.
AUTHORITIES IN PANAMA RAISE AWARENESS ABOUT THE DANGERS OF ANIMAL TRAFFICKING
About 39 migrants died early Wednesday morning in a bus crash in western Panama. The bus driver collided with another vehicle causing the bus to roll off a cliff.
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The bus was carrying 66 migrants to the shelter.
It was the worst accident involving migrants in Panama in at least a decade. The flow of migrants through Panama has increased in recent years as more have risked the dangerous crossing while trying to get north to the United States.
Last year, nearly 250,000 migrants crossed the Darien jungle, most of them Venezuelans, a record number that nearly doubled the previous year’s total. In January, more than 24,000 migrants crossed the Darién, mostly Haitians and Ecuadorians, according to Panamanian authorities.
