I can swim well, and likely would not panic in this situation were I foolish enough to get in an overloaded dinghy.
But I imagine the horror of Haitians and Dominicans who are tossed into the water and never learned to swim.
I have seen shear terror in their eyes just from being in the shallow end of a swimming pool.
There is no real excuse for not learning how to swim - it is a necessary skill for life