BOGOTA - More than 90 Haitian migrants were left behind at sea by human smugglers while attempting to cross from Colombia to Panama.
The group eventually wanted to reach the United States, the Colombian Navy reported Tuesday. According to the navy, the migrants were in a motorboat en route to Darién, a difficult-to-pass jungle area on the border of Panama and Colombia that has become one of the main routes among smugglers to take migrants illegally through Central America to the United States.
Africans, Cubans and Haitians in particular would use the route.
The vessel's engine broke down, the navy said, leaving 61 adults and 33 minors stranded at sea. A fishing boat hauled the boat to a harbor in the nearby Colombian municipality of Acandí, where the navy received the group and later turned it over to the authorities.
By 2020, Colombia has so far deported more than 3,800 undocumented migrants, according to government figures. Among these would be more than 3,000 Haitians.