A boat with 19 migrants from Venezuela and Colombia and two crew sank off Panama, border police in charge of the rescue operation said Saturday.

They once braved the jungles of the Darien Gap, trekking days along the perilous migrant passage dividing Colombia and Panama with a simple goal: Seek asylum in the U.S. Now, boat-by-boat, those migrants – mainly from the Andean nations of Venezuela and Colombia – have given up after President Donald Trump’s crackdown on asylum,

More than 100 asylum seekers from around the world sent to Panama from the United States have no sense how long they will be held or where they might eventually be sent.

A growing number of Latin American migrants who have given up hope of reaching the United States are returning to their home countries in South America through a sea route in Panama, which poses new risks,

They once braved the jungles of the Darien Gap, trekking days along the perilous migrant passage dividing Colombia and Panama with a simple goal: seek asylum in the U.S.

during a stop on their journey from southern Mexico to Puerto de Cartí on Panama’s Caribbean coast, seeking a boat to Colombia from where she will return to Venezuela. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix) Updated [hour]:[minute] [AMPM] [timezone], [monthFull ...

“Panama cannot end up becoming a black hole for deported migrants,” said Juan Pappier, deputy director of Human Rights Watch in the Americas. “Migrants have the right to communicate with their families, to seek lawyers and Panama must guarantee transparency about the situation in which they find themselves.”

Panama says it’s working to formalize a route long used to smuggle migrants on the way to the U.S., which is now being increasingly used to return migrants to South America in a reverse flow triggered

Trump’s hard-line immigration policies have sparked a reverse migration wave, with migrants traveling south through Panama and Colombia.

Latin American migrants are turning around in droves and expressing regret at attempting to cross unlawfully into the United States

Dozens of Venezuelan migrants boarded small boats on an island off the Caribbean coast of Panama on Monday, setting off towards Colombia by sea as part of a reverse migration of families who have given up trying to reach the United States.

The ordeal of those returning has been further highlighted a tragedy last Friday, when a boat carrying 21 migrants capsized in rough waters