MIAMI – Up to 80 Haitian migrants were missing and more than 120 were rescued after their wooden boat hit a reef and sank off the Turks and Caicos islands, local police and the US Coast Guard said yesterday.
The Coast Guard said nine bodies had been located so far in the waters off West Caicos, a sparsely inhabited island in the British territory, following the shipwreck.
“The boat ran aground on a reef, Molasses Reef, off West Caicos ... we’ve rescued 124 people – 22 females and 102 males – and two of the males were deceased,” Turks and Caicos police spokesman, Sgt Calvin Chase, told Reuters.
He said the wreck occurred late on Sunday. It was unclear how many people were on board the vessel when it sank, but estimates given earlier by the Coast Guard ranged from 160 to 200.
Coast Guard spokesman Barry Bena said Coast Guard cutters and aircraft were assisting Turks and Caicos authorities in the search for more survivors.
Sgt Chase said there were conflicting reports about how many people were on board the wooden boat, which he said was carrying illegal migrants from Haiti trying to reach the United States. An investigation was under way.
Coast Guard vessels and helicopters, the Turks and Caicos Police Marine Patrol and private boats had all helped pluck the survivors from the reefs and waters on Monday.
Haitian migrants often leave their impoverished Caribbean country in dangerously crowded boats, hoping to escape poverty and find work in the Bahamas or Florida.
The Turks and Caicos islands are a British territory in the Atlantic Ocean, between the southern Bahamas and the north coast of Haiti.
The Coast Guard said some of the most gravely injured survivors were taken by helicopter to the Turks and Caicos capital of Providenciales for medical treatment.
Last week, the Coast Guard intercepted 124 Haitian migrants from what they called a “grossly overloaded” 60-foot (18-metre) boat about 150 miles (240 km) southwest of the shipwreck site. They were repatriated to Haiti on Monday.
In May 2007, an overcrowded sloop carrying more than 160 capsized off the Turks and Caicos Islands. Some of the victims were eaten by sharks. The 78 people who survived accused a Turks and Caicos patrol boat of ramming their vessel as they approached shore. – (Reuters, PA)