The Foreign Ministry reported that there would be Ecuadorian victims among the migrants who died in Panama. The death toll in the bus accident rose to 39.
Image of one of the injured migrants in Panama, on February 15, 2023.
A bus accident, in the early morning of February 15, in western Panama, has so far left 39 migrants dead and 20 injured, according to an update from the Panamanian National Migration Service.
“It is not something (for which) we were prepared. These are things that happen”, affirmed the director of this Service, Samira Gozaine.
The accident
The accident occurred when a bus carrying migrants fell off a cliff early Wednesday morning in the Gualaca area, in western Panama.
“Preliminary information on this fact handled by the Fire Department indicates that 39 people have unfortunately lost their lives,” the Ministry of Public Security said in a statement.
Among the injured there are at least five minors, two of them with serious injuries.
The injured “are being treated in different hospitals and health centers,” added the official statement, which confirmed that the bus, license plate 5B-54, was carrying 66 passengers.
“The bus was transporting migrants in transit through the isthmus, from the temporary immigration reception stations in Darién”, the border with Colombia, and suffered “an accident on the way to the Los Planes de Gualaca station, in the province of Chiriquí”, bordering with Costa Rica.
The authorities have not yet released details on the identity of the deceased.
“As it is an accident that occurred in our territory, logically we are going to do all the coordination through the Foreign Ministry and we, as a State, will give all that support to reach the families, the bodies, the injured. There is all that willingness on our part,” the Panamanian Security Minister, Juan Pino, assured EFE.
Ecuadorians among the possible victims
The Embassy of Ecuador in Panama confirmed this Wednesday that 22 Ecuadorians were on the bus with migrants that crashed in that Central American country, which has left 39 dead so far.
On its Twitter account, the embassy indicated that they are “in direct contact with the immigration authorities to find out about the state of health of 22 compatriots who were on the bus that crashed in the Province of Chiriquí, with 60 migrants of various nationalities.”
In a statement issued in Quito, the Foreign Ministry “deeply regretted the tragedy that occurred in Panama” this morning, “in a new traffic accident involving a bus that was transporting migrants from the Darién area to Chiriquí, on the border with Costa Rica”.
“This tragedy moves us and alerts us to the dangers of irregular migration, which entails serious risks to life and human dignity,” the statement concluded.
On the migration route
In the transport, 66 migrants were traveling in transit who were in shelters in the province of Darién, on the border with Colombia, and were transferred to another in Chiriquí, on the border with Costa Rica.
The intention of the migrants was to enter the United States by crossing irregularly.
Panama, where 248,284 irregular migrants traveling to North America arrived last year after crossing the Darién jungle, an unprecedented number, receives these travelers at stations where they take their biometric data and offers them health and food assistance, after which they are transferred in buses to the border with Costa Rica so that they can continue on their way.
The Prosecutor’s Office reported that “it is carrying out the first investigative procedures in Los Planes, district of Gualaca, where a traffic accident was recorded.”
The first versions indicate that the bus driver tried to make a turn on the road, but lost control, collided with another bus and fell into the ravine.
