'Not animals': migrants shun shelters on way home to South America

'Not animals': migrants shun shelters on way home to South America

Luis Montilla chose sleeping on a beach in Panama instead of being confined to a migrant shelter on his way home to Venezuela after failing to enter the United States.

Panama. In a small village in the Panamanian Caribbean, Luis Montilla waits to pay for a boat on his way back after not getting into the United States. He prefers to sleep on the beach rather than being locked up in migrant shelters: “We are not animals,” he tells AFP. Montilla, 28, and another half a hundred Venezuelans are stranded in the coastal town of Miramar, in the province of Colón, while relatives send them the $260 they charge each the…

In a small village in the Panamanian Caribbean, the Venezuelan Luis Montilla waits to pay for a boat on his way back after not getting into the United States. He prefers to sleep on the beach rather than being locked in migrant shelters: "We are not animals," he tells the AFP. Montilla, 28, and another half a hundred Venezuelans are stranded in the coastal town of Miramar, in the province of Colón, while relatives send them the $260 they charge …

At least one dead woman and 16 missing persons left a wreck that left Venezuela for the island of Curaçao on Tuesday, 4 March. The boat that was sailing with 26 migrants hushed on its way from Falcón state to the Dutch Caribbean; after the accident, the Coast Guard of Curaçao rescued 10 people, but until the morning of Thursday, 6 March, 16 of them were still missing.The incident occurred in the early hours of the morning when the launch, which …

Hundreds of Venezuelans return to their country after they desist from reaching the U.S. The most difficult route on their way is between Panama and Colombia.

The Dutch Caribbean Coast Guard managed to rescue 10 Venezuelans, mostly from the Falcón state, on March 4, after their boat was shipwrecked while trying to illegally enter the island of Curacao. The agency indicated on Facebook that it received an alert about the disappearance of one or more boats at sea, after they left Venezuela with the direction of Curaçao «with several undocumented immigrants on board».