A growing number of Latin American migrants who have given up hope of reaching the United States are returning to their home countries in South America through a sea route in Panama, which poses new risks, according to authorities. <\/p>\n
Instead of trekking through the treacherous Darien Jungle between North and South America \u2013 as thousands had done on their way to the United States \u2013 many migrants are now boarding small boats on Panama\u2019s Caribbean coast, making their way toward Colombia by sea. <\/p>\n
The uptick in boat journeys comes as the Trump administration has been enforcing strict policies to remove migrants from the US or limit their entry. <\/p>\n
But these boat rides to Colombia, which cover more than 100 nautical miles in a single day, can be dangerous. Last week, an eight-year-old girl from Venezuela died after the boat she was traveling on sank near the community of Mansucum, Panama, according to the country\u2019s National Border Service, known as SENAFRONT. <\/p>\n
The boat was one of three that had taken off from the Port of Llano Carti toward La Miel, Panama, near the border with Colombia. The other two boats suspended their journeys due to \u201cadverse conditions\u201d at sea, but the third continued despite the warnings and ultimately sank, authorities said. <\/p>\n
Twenty migrants \u2013 mostly from Venezuela and Colombia \u2013 were rescued after Friday\u2019s shipwreck, according to SENAFRONT. <\/p>\n
The Panamanian foreign ministry said it regretted what happened and added that the country \u201creaffirms its commitment to international cooperation and respect for human rights, particularly in situations involving people in vulnerable conditions.\u201d <\/p>\n
These boat rides are happening in the Guna Yala indigenous territory of northeastern Panama. <\/p>\n
On Sunday alone, at least 110 migrants sought boat rides from the ports of the Guna Yala region to the Colombian port town of Necocl\u00ed, Merry said. <\/p>\n
The Guna community worry the reverse migration could strain their resources because they lack services and infrastructure to adequately provide care for migrants. In a statement shared Sunday, the community called on the Panama and US governments, \u201cand international organizations to suspend the massive arrival of migrants to our territory.\u201d <\/p>\n
Panamanian Security Minister Frank \u00c1brego said Tuesday that the boat rides are happening \u201cwith the full knowledge\u201d of authorities in the Guna Yala region. He said SENAFRONT has established departure points in non-populated parts of Guna Yala so migrants can make their way south. <\/p>\n
\u201cFor example, the old airport in Ustupu, where no one lives, was used so that from there, the boats can go to La Miel, because we understand that traveling 111 nautical miles is not easy for any boat that does cabotage services between islands,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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A growing number of Latin American migrants who have given up hope of reaching the United States are returning to their home countries in South America through a sea route in Panama, which poses new risks, according to authorities. Instead of trekking through the treacherous Darien Jungle between North and South America \u2013 as thousands…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3769,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3768","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3768","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3768"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3768\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3769"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3768"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3768"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3768"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}