The authorities of Panama working hard to identify the 41 undocumented migrants who died in a bus accident, including minors.
The last of those who died was a 7-year-old boy who was in critical condition in the province of Chiriquí, according to the State Ministry.
Work to identify “all the deceased is ongoing due to the condition of the bodies,” the Panamanian presidency said in a statement.
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According to the authorities “It has also not been possible to verify the identities of all the survivors, as some still lie unconscious in hospitals and they lost their identity documents, which were scattered at the scene of the events”.
Where did the migrants come from?
The Panama government reported that the nationalities of the 66 migrants, including 20 minors (12 boys and 8 girls) who were traveling on the crashed bus are as follows:
- 22 from Ecuador
- Haitian 16
- 11 from Venezuela
- 6 from Brazil
- 5 from Colombia
- 2 from Cameroon
- 2 Cubans
- 1 Nigerian
- 1 Eritrean
The Institute of Forensic Medicine and Forensics said that given “the condition of the bodies and the lack of ante-mortem data,” “information from the migrants’ countries of origin was needed to obtain papillary or dental morphological records and specimens from family members to the genetic.” Matching for identification purposes”.
The President of the Association of Foreign and Naturalized Residents of Panama (ARENA), Rafael Rodríguez, said he was concerned that “24 hours after the accident,” the name and countries where the bus’s passengers crashed are still unknown be . . .
He also criticized the fact that Panama’s National Migration Service (SNM) “neither confirms nor denies” information from the governments of Cuba, Colombia or Ecuador that nationals of those countries were among the dead and injured.
The government said 10 minors were being treated at a children’s hospital in David, the capital of Chiriquí, of whom 7 are stable and three in critical condition – one of whom died on Thursday, February 16, authorities confirmed.
Investigations are ongoing
The deputy continued to collect evidence at the scene of the accident as part of the investigation into crimes against life and personal integrity.
He The bus was left roofless, wrecked, with the seats scattered on the floor at the scene of the accidenta highway that leads to the Gualaca refugee camp, last point touched by irregular travelers in Panama before leaving for Costa Rica within the framework of the state operation “controlled flow”.
For reasons yet to be determined, the bus driver, a Panamanian citizen who also died, lost control and fell into a ravine near the shelter.
The car would have collided with at least one solid object and also another bus that was parked on a slope where, according to officials, there were two people who were also injured.
This worst accident in the history of Panama happened in the context of the regional migration crisis: in 2022, 248,284 irregular travelers arrived in this country through the jungle, an unprecedented number and 85.6% more than in 2021. , while more than 37,000 have done this so far this year.
With information from Efe and Telemundo.