At least 39 people, most of them undocumented US migrants who had just survived a dangerous jungle crossing, were killed in a bus crash in Panama on Wednesday, officials said.
Maria Isabel Saravia, Panama’s deputy director of migration, said 28 people were also injured in the accident.
The bus plunged into a ravine and crashed into a minibus about 400 kilometers (250 miles) west of the capital Panama City, the National Migration Service said in a media statement.
It said the injured, including children, were being treated at various hospitals and clinics and that the latest death toll was based on “preliminary information.”
Saravia said there were 66 people on the bus, meaning there were at least one casualty from the vehicle that was hit. He said 20 people on the bus were minors.
UNICEF said in a note to AFP that at least three children had died.
The bus was carrying migrants who had crossed the Darien Gap, an inhospitable jungle region bordering Colombia.
They moved west to Costa Rica and from there continued their journey through Central America and Mexico to the United States.
The bus had traveled nearly 700 kilometers in about 14 hours and was on its way to a hostel in Gualaca near the Costa Rican border, where the passengers needed to rest before continuing their journey.
Local media said that the accident happened when the driver turned around the bus after missing the boarding.
The vehicle apparently left the road at a bend and plunged into a ravine, hitting rocks and a minibus on the road below.
“We saw it coming and diving on the seat, the driver and me, and because nothing happened,” Edgar Guerra, one of the two people in the minibus, told local media.
The nationalities of the occupants have not been revealed but Cuban foreign minister Bruno Rodriguez said on Twitter that Cubans were among the dead.
– ‘Loved it’ –
President Laurentino Cortizo tweeted “very sad” upon learning of the accident.
“This is regrettable news for Panama and the region,” he said, offering his condolences to the government.
“The government team is working hard on the ground, providing medical assistance to the survivors of this tragedy,” added the president.
Several people were taken by ambulance to a hospital in the provincial capital of Chiriqui, David, according to authorities.
Among them were 10 children aged between four and 11, including three in “critical condition,” said hospital director Johny Parra.
Thousands of migrants who come through Colombia every year risk their lives through the thick roads, the swamps of the Darien Gap, a pathless forest area full of wild animals, dangerous rivers and criminal gangs.
According to Jose Vicente Pachar, director general of Panama’s Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences, at least 60 migrants died crossing the Darien Gap last year, up from 50 in 2021.
The impenetrable topography has meant that plans to build the missing section of the Pan-American Highway through the Darien Gap have never been realized.
-Risk-
Despite the dangers, the number of irregular migrants arriving in Panama to the United States will almost double by 2022 to a record 248,000, immigration authorities reported on January 1.
More than half are Venezuelans, the rest include Ecuadorians, Haitians and Cubans, as well as Africans and Asians.
The government of Panama, in collaboration with UN agencies and aid organizations, has set up camps to provide humanitarian aid to migrants.
In the tweet, Cortizo reaffirmed the government’s “commitment to continue providing humanitarian aid and dignified conditions in the face of irregular migration.”
Panamanian authorities help transfer hundreds of migrants a day by private bus from the border with Colombia to Paso Canoas on the border with Costa Rica.
It is a journey of 700 kilometers and about 10 hours for migrants to buy a ticket.
“It’s really a traffic accident, these are people who are looking for better living conditions,” Panama’s national migration director Samira Gozaine told broadcaster Telemetro as she highlighted the risks people are taking on the journey.
He said migrant buses to Paso Canoas usually travel at night when there is less traffic and cooler conditions.