Second migrant child dies on ‘reverse migration’ boat route

PANAMA – A three-year-old child died after a boat carrying migrants towards Colombia capsized off Panama’s Caribbean coast, Panamanian officials confirmed on Nov 9.

The boat capsized off the coast of Colon province and was carrying 21 people, who were pulled from the sea “thanks to the opportune intervention of a private vessel”, Panamanian officials said in a statement. They said the authorities then responded to help in rescue efforts.

The child, who officials said was originally from Colombia, was given cardiopulmonary resuscitation, but could not be revived.

A Panamanian official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to provide information, confirmed that the migrants’ boat had been travelling not northward towards the US, but in the direction of Colombia.

This is the second known case of a child drowning on a new migrant route that sprouted early in 2025 to help shuttle people back towards their home countries in South America after the

Trump administration virtually sealed the US border to migrants

. It warned those who had crossed into the US and lacked legal status to “self-deport” or be hunted down.

In February, an eight-year-old boy from Venezuela drowned when his family’s boat capsized in rough seas.

As at late September, more than 14,000 migrants in 2025 have ridden on small boats along Panama’s Caribbean and Pacific coasts in an attempt to skirt the fearsome, roadless jungle pass between Panama and Colombia known as the Darien Gap, Panamanian officials said.

The authorities, alongside US officials, have all but sealed that passageway in an effort to stop a multi-year surge in northbound migration.

The so-called reverse migration route is run by small operations staffed by fishermen and captains of pleasure craft and advertised on TikTok. These take migrants as far as the Panamanian border, where they board other boats to reach Colombia.

The route is sought out by migrants who lack passports or funds to pay for flights, according to many migrants interviewed by The New York Times in 2025. The majority are Venezuelan.

Many travel overland – often from Mexico, and occasionally all the way from the US – then pay about US$300 (S$390) a person for a seat on small boats with outboard motors. The Panamanian authorities have been allowing the boats to proceed after they stop at a checkpoint where migration officials can count those on board.

The journey from small ports around the city of Colon to the Colombian border can take as long as 10 hours, depending on conditions at sea. Migrants – including children – generally wear life jackets but receive no safety training.

On Nov 9, Panamanian authorities said the boat that capsized had been operated by a Colombian national licensed as a fisherman, whose outfit “did not meet the conditions for the transport of passengers”. The boat, which had departed from an unauthorised port, the authorities said, had been carrying 18 adults and three minors.

It was not immediately clear whether other passengers were injured or hospitalised. NYTIMES