One dead, boy missing in migrant boat capsize off Costa Rica

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A boat carrying migrants trying to cross from Costa Rica to Nicaragua capsized today, resulting in a man drowning and a boy going missing, authorities said. At least 19 migrants, said to be from Africa and Mongolia, were on board the small vessel when it tipped over in Salinas Bay, in northwest Costa Rica close to the Nicaraguan border, Costa Rica’s public security ministry said, according to the newspaper La Nacion.

Initial reports said the other 17 people were rescued from the water. A second boat carrying 14 migrants was with the vessel when it capsized. Two “coyotes,” or people smugglers, were said to have been with them but swam away, according to the ministry. Thousands of people from Africa and Asia pass through Central America each year in efforts to reach the United States, international organizations say.