Identification Of Migrants Killed In Panama Accident Begins

This content was published on February 19, 2023 – 19:21 February 19, 2023 – 19:21

Panama City, 19 February (EFE). – Forensic teams this Sunday began comparing fingerprints as part of the process of identifying the victims of the crash on a bus carrying migrants that left at least 39 dead and twenty injured in Panama, with a dozen nearby in serious condition.

The Institute of Forensic Medicine and Forensics of Panama said that work on matching fingerprints began this Sunday in cases where “the information necessary to do so” had been received and that “once the results are available, they will be communicated the same applies.” for the Public Ministry”.

“The experts carried out should determine the identity of the deceased and the bereaved. It is a process of matching, confirming and legalizing identity,” the forensic institution said in a statement.

He reiterated that “this procedure is complicated by the handling of a heterogeneous group of people from different countries, by the state of integrity and preservation of the cadavers and by the lack of information from the relatives, dental charts and genetic profiles, which are essential for the respective comparisons”.

Authorities are investigating the causes of the accident, the worst of its kind in the country’s history, in which the roofless bus was left wrecked and with its seats thrown on the scene, more than 450 kilometers from the city of Panama. There are mutilated or unrecognizable bodies.

On the bus “traveled 66 migrants: 22 from Ecuador, 16 from Haiti, 11 from Venezuela, 6 from Brazil, 5 from Colombia, 2 from Cameroon, 2 from Cuba, 1 from Nigeria and 1 from Eritrea. A total of 20 minors were traveling of age: 12 boys and 8 girls,” the government announced so far.

In 2022, 248,284 irregular travelers entered Panama through the jungle, an unprecedented number and 85.6% more than in 2021, compared to more than 37,000 so far this year. EFE

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