In the Panamanian port village of Miramar, the migrants wait in abandoned houses and makeshift tents, the air heavy with unease. Few know how they will pay for the passage on a crowded boat to their next destination, 10 hours south. All are weary and despondent. I was hoping for a better future, but it was all for nothing, said Gabriela, a 26-year-old Venezuelan mother. I don't know what I will do.
More than 14,000 people, mainly Venezuelans, who hoped to reach the US have reversed course and turned south since the start of Donald Trump's immigration crackdown, according to a report by the governments of Colombia, Panama and Costa Rica. The phenomenon, known as reverse flow migration, is largely made up of Venezuelans who fled the country's long-running economic, social and political crises only to encounter US immigration policy no longer open to asylum seekers.
