Panama deports Ecuadorean migrants in second US-backed flight

PANAMA CITY (Reuters) -Panamanian authorities deported a group of migrants to Ecuador on a second flight financed by the United States, as part of an agreement between the U.S. and Panama to discourage irregular crossings and reduce the flow of mostly U.S.-bound migration.

The flight carrying 30 Ecuadoreans departed on Thursday evening en route to the coastal city of Manta, Ecuador, Panama's migration service said, adding the migrants were deported for evading a migration checkpoint on the popular Darien Gap route.

Thousands of people every year cross the dangerous Darien Gap jungle on Panama's border with Colombia on the way to the United States.

The flight on Thursday followed a maiden journey financed by Washington in mid-August, which returned around 30 migrants to Colombia.

The latest deportation comes days after Panama's President Jose Mulino announced return flights for Indian migrants in September and for Chinese citizens on an unspecified date.

(Reporting by Elida Moreno; Writing by Brendan O'Boyle; Editing by Christian Schmollinger and Jamie Freed)