A makeshift boat overloaded with migrants capsized Thursday on its method to Puerto Rico, officers stated, leaving a minimum of 13 folks lifeless as dozens extra have been rescued.
Washington
13 dead, dozens rescued after migrant boat capsizes near Puerto Rico
The Coast Guard stated it heard shortly earlier than midday that the aircrew of a Customs and Border Safety plane had noticed the boat and folks within the water. Authorities stated the boat was discovered about 10 nautical miles north of Desecheo Island — a patch of land within the Mona Passage, the strait between Puerto Rico and the Caribbean island that features the Dominican Republic and Haiti.
The vessel is “suspected of collaborating in an unlawful voyage,” the Coast Guard stated in a information launch. An growing variety of migrants have made related treacherous journeys by sea, fleeing nations the place the coronavirus pandemic has exacerbated long-standing issues of poverty and violence.
Thirty-one survivors — 11 girls and 20 males — have been taken to Crash Boat Seashore in Aguadilla, stated Jeffrey Quiñones, a regional spokesperson for Customs and Border Safety. He stated the boat departed from the Dominican Republic however added that solely two survivors are from that nation.
These rescued embody eight Haitians who have been transported to a hospital in Aguadilla, a city in northwestern Puerto Rico, Quiñones stated.
Betsy Rivera, spokesperson for Puerto Rico’s Institute of Forensic Sciences, stated the company obtained 13 our bodies because of the ocean accident. It didn’t but have identities or nationalities for the deceased. Autopsies will happen Friday and the company hopes to extract DNA to establish the lifeless.
The institute has been in contact with the Dominican Human Rights Committee, a corporation it usually contacts with these kinds of incidents, to assist establish relations on the neighboring island.
Puerto Rico has a big Dominican inhabitants, and unlawful crossings by sea are widespread. Movies circulated on social media seize migrants arriving on fashionable seashores, the place locals typically welcome and cheer them on as they run from authorities.
However the crossings will be perilous. Final week, a girl died after a ship capsized throughout an unlawful voyage by the Mona Passage. The U.S. Coast Guard and the Dominican Republic Navy rescued a further 68 folks after recognizing them “constantly bailing water out from the makeshift vessel,” officers stated.
“This case highlights the risks of unlawful voyages aboard makeshift and grossly overloaded vessels within the Mona Passage,” Capt. José E. Díaz, appearing commander of U.S. Coast Guard Sector San Juan, stated in an announcement Saturday.
Castrodad stated the sort of vessel that capsized Thursday is named a “yola” — a ship with “poor building, at all times taking over water, unseaworthy and designed to attempt to simply get these folks throughout in a single try.”
The boats will be laborious to detect, he stated, so it was lucky that Customs and Border Safety crews noticed the emergency.
Officers stated they’re working to interview the survivors and study extra concerning the state of affairs.
Rising numbers of Dominicans and Haitians have been intercepted in Puerto Rico and the Mona Passage on “unlawful voyages” in recent times, in response to U.S. Coast Guard knowledge. In fiscal 2021 — which ran from Oct. 1, 2020 to Sept. 30, 2021 — 463 Dominican and 15 Haitians have been intercepted by the Coast Guard.
Fifty-three such voyages have been intercepted by the Coast Guard and its associate businesses from Oct. 1 of final yr to March 31. Some 1,308 migrants — together with 940 Dominicans and 298 Haitians — have been apprehended, the Coast Guard stated.
Based on U.S. Coast Guard knowledge, 1,527 Haitians, 742 Dominicans and 838 Cubans making “unlawful voyages” have been intercepted in Florida and the Caribbean within the yr ended Sept. 30, 2021.
Minority Rights Group Worldwide, a human rights nonprofit, stated that about 30,000 of 100,000 Dominicans residing in Puerto Rico are believed to be undocumented immigrants. Most of these immigrants stay on the island slightly than happening to different elements of the USA, the nonprofit stated.