Haitians fleeing their impoverished homeland met tragedy when their boat went down off the Bahamas, killing at least 20 people and leaving only three known survivors, including an alleged migrant smuggler, authorities said on Monday.
Survivors said the boat was carrying 24 people when it capsized on Saturday night, US Coast Guard spokesman Luis Diaz said in Miami, Florida.
Just before dawn on Sunday, fishermen heard screams.
PHOTO: AP
Volunteers searched for bodies, tying life preservers onto them so they could be recovered by the US Coast Guard, said Chris Lloyd of the Bahamas Air Sea Rescue Association.
“We recovered as many as we could,” Lloyd said.
The migrants appeared to be aiming for US shores and the accident happened less than 240km from Miami, said Chief Petty Officer Ralph McKinney of the Royal Bahamas Defense Force. The boat had set out from Nassau and was supposed to stop in Bimini en route to Florida, he said.
Two Haitian survivors — a man and a woman — were being treated at a Nassau hospital for dehydration. The third survivor, a Honduran marine mechanic, was taken into police custody as authorities investigate smuggling allegations, McKinney said.
Haitian Ambassador Louis Harold Joseph said he had not yet received confirmation that everyone who died was Haitian, but he expressed doubt that the voyage was connected to recent Haitian food riots in which at least seven people died.
He said he was talking to leaders of the Haitian community in the Bahamas to see if they could help identify the victims or provide information about the voyage. But he said he didn’t expect much.
“People who participate in smuggling operations generally they don’t talk, they don’t provide information,” Joseph said in a phone interview.
Survivors described the boat as a go-fast, suggesting the migrants had more money than others who make the perilous crossing jammed aboard makeshift vessels.
The Coast Guard has been on alert for a spike in migration following riots earlier this month in the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, but so far none has appeared. So far this year, 737 Haitians have been intercepted, compared to 1,583 for last year, the Coast Guard said.
Caricom, the Caribbean economic trade bloc, said on Monday that it was considering sending US$10 million to Haiti to help it with its food crisis. The UN, the US and Venezuela are also offering help.
The weekend boat accident happened in calm waters about 25km northwest of Nassau, the Coast Guard said. The two Haitian survivors identified the Honduran as the sunken vessel’s captain, Lloyd said.
Airlines in Australia, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia and Singapore yesterday canceled flights to and from the Indonesian island of Bali, after a nearby volcano catapulted an ash tower into the sky. Australia’s Jetstar, Qantas and Virgin Australia all grounded flights after Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki on Flores island spewed a 9km tower a day earlier. Malaysia Airlines, AirAsia, India’s IndiGo and Singapore’s Scoot also listed flights as canceled. “Volcanic ash poses a significant threat to safe operations of the aircraft in the vicinity of volcanic clouds,” AirAsia said as it announced several cancelations. Multiple eruptions from the 1,703m twin-peaked volcano in
Farmer Liu Bingyong used to make a tidy profit selling milk but is now leaking cash — hit by a dairy sector crisis that embodies several of China’s economic woes. Milk is not a traditional mainstay of Chinese diets, but the Chinese government has long pushed people to drink more, citing its health benefits. The country has expanded its dairy production capacity and imported vast numbers of cattle in recent years as Beijing pursues food self-sufficiency. However, chronically low consumption has left the market sloshing with unwanted milk — driving down prices and pushing farmers to the brink — while
‘SIGNS OF ESCALATION’: Russian forces have been aiming to capture Ukraine’s eastern Donbas province and have been capturing new villages as they move toward Pokrovsk Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi on Saturday said that Ukraine faced increasing difficulties in its fight against Moscow’s invasion as Russian forces advance and North Korean troops prepare to join the Kremlin’s campaign. Syrskyi, relating comments he made to a top US general, said outnumbered Ukrainian forces faced Russian attacks in key sectors of the more than two-and-a-half-year-old war with Russia. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in a nightly address said that Ukraine’s military command was focused on defending around the town of Kurakhove — a target of Russia’s advances along with Pokrovsk, a logistical hub to the north. He decried strikes
China has built a land-based prototype nuclear reactor for a large surface warship, in the clearest sign yet Beijing is advancing toward producing the nation’s first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, according to a new analysis of satellite imagery and Chinese government documents provided to The Associated Press. There have long been rumors that China is planning to build a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, but the research by the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in California is the first to confirm it is working on a nuclear-powered propulsion system for a carrier-sized surface warship. Why is China’s pursuit of nuclear-powered carriers significant? China’s navy is already
RSS