Nassau, Bahamas
Reuters
Seventeen people died after a boat carrying dozens of Haitian migrants capsized off the coast of The Bahamas, authorities said on Sunday, as more Haitians attempt to reach the United States to flee gang violence and poverty at home.
Rescue teams recovered the bodies of 17 people, including an infant, and 25 people were rescued, Bahamian Prime Minister Philip Davis told a news conference. Davis said authorities believe they were on a speedboat heading for Miami.
“It is believed that the vessel capsized in rough seas,” he said.
Survivors of a migrant boat that capsized perch on the overturned vessel off the coast of New Providence island, Bahamas, on 24th July. PICTURE: Royal Bahamas Defence Force/Handout via Reuters.
Up to 60 people may have been on board and more people were presumed missing, Police Commissioner Clayton Fernander said.
Bahamian authorities said that two people were taken into custody, both from Bahamas, over the suspected human smuggling operation. All those on board recovered alive or dead or who were still missing were believed to be migrants from Haiti.
The Bahamas police said the boat capsized some 11 kilometres off the island of New Providence.
The Bahamas is a frequent transit route for Haitians seeking to reach the United States. Dangerous sea voyages in rickety vessels have become increasingly common over the last year as Haitians flee poverty and rising gang violence.
Immigration Minister Keith Bell said survivors indicated that they paid between $US3,000 and $US8,000 for the voyage.
“We mourn lives lost of those seeking a better way of life,” Bell said. “Those here with families and friends in Haiti, encourage your loved ones not to risk their lives.”
In May, a boat carrying 842 Haitian migrants bound for the United States strayed off course and washed ashore along the north coast of Cuba instead.
That same month, 11 people drowned when a vessel carrying Haitian migrants capsized near Puerto Rico.
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Meanwhile, Mexican security officials detained more than 200 mostly Guatemalan migrants at a warehouse in central Mexico who were waiting to be smuggled northward, the government said on Sunday.
Mexico’s National Migration Institute said there were 225 migrants discovered overnight in a warehouse in Jilotepec in the state of Mexico, 194 of whom were Guatemalans. There were also 14 Hondurans, nine Nicaraguans, five Cubans and three El Salvadorans, the INM said.
The government of the state of Mexico, which surrounds most of Mexico City, said in a separate statement that 248 migrants were found in the warehouse. An INM spokesperson could not immediately explain the discrepancy between the two figures.
An increase in undocumented immigration to the United States is weighing on US President Joe Biden ahead of mid-term legislative elections in November.
Apprehensions of migrants on the US southern border have jumped to their highest levels in years.
– Additional reporting by KANISHKA SINGH in Washington DC; LIZBETH DIAZ and DAVE GRAHAM
