Panamanian officials The death toll, including children, rose to 40 in the bus accident. On Wednesday, he was taking irregular migrants to a shelter near the Costa Rica border. The accident occurred at around 4:00 (9.00 GMT) local time in the Gualaca region in the west of Chiriquí province, about 450 kilometers from the capital of Panama. More than 20 people were injured, according to officials. A source from the Ministry of Public Affairs (Deputy, Prosecutor’s Office) told EFE that one of the injured died while being treated at the hospital, bringing the death toll in the accident to 40.
Among the injured are 12 children aged between 5 and 11, 3 of them seriously. criticism At the children’s hospital in the city of David, the capital city of Chiriquí, as explained by the institution’s medical director, Johny Parra. Diana Romero, UNICEF emergency protection specialist, told EFE that the UN agency “deeply regrets” this accident, which “involved several of the boys and girls we cared for in Darién a few hours ago.” Irregular immigrants come from all over the world traveling to the United States.
Medical sources said 23 were injured at another hospital in the city of David, with a dozen in critical condition in intensive care units.
Among the dead are Cubans and Colombians.
Panamanian authorities have not publicly disclosed the age or nationality of the deceased, who are presumed to be mostly immigrants transiting to North America. María Isabel Saravia, deputy director of the National Immigration Service (SNM), said at a press conference that among the dead was a Panamanian national, one of the two drivers, as well as children – 20 minor passengers on the bus. Saravia noted that “66 foreigners” were traveling on the bus from Panama. He confined himself to saying that the list includes African citizens and South American countries such as Brazil and Ecuador, and that the State Department is in contact with different governments.
While the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed this Wednesday, without specifying the number, that the islanders were among the dead, the Colombian Government expressed its “deepest condolences to the relatives of the victims, the Colombians and several sister countries”. Ecuador’s Embassy in Panama said that 22 people on the bus were citizens of that country and requested information from the Panamanian authorities about their situation.
The dangers of irregular migration
According to the version available and verified by the authorities, bus driver missed hostel entrance Gualaca and trying to spin lost control of the vehicle, collided with at least one fixed object and plunged into a mountain pass. The bus was demolished without a roof and with chairs scattered on the floor. The Panama Prosecutor’s Office reported that there were mutilated bodies.
This is the worst such accident recorded in Panama in over 50 years. Saravia stressed that this “unfortunate” accident occurred in the context of the regional migration crisis: in 2022, an unprecedented number of 248,284 irregular travelers arrived in Panama after traveling through several South American countries and crossing the Darién forest. So far this year, with a Continuous Mobility (…) ‘controlled flow’ operation, Panama has transported more than 500,000 people as part of international mobility, protected them and provided humanitarian aid to the fullest extent possible.”
Panama picks up irregular migrants crossing the jungle at stations where they receive their biometric data, offers them health and food aid, and is then sent by bus to the Costa Rican border to continue on their way. Activists denounced the overcrowding at immigration stations, and a recent report by independent experts and UN special rapporteurs cited allegations of harassment, including sexual abuse, of immigrants by Panamanian authorities, which officials have so far denied.