Eleven individuals died Thursday after a boat believed to be carrying dozens of migrants capsized off Puerto Rico, authorities mentioned.
None of the individuals noticed within the water throughout a “mass rescue” effort about 10 miles north of Desecho Island appeared to be carrying life jackets, the Coast Guard mentioned in a launch.
As of Thursday night time, 31 survivors had been present in what the Coast Guard described as a suspected “illegal voyage.”
The origin of the vessel and the nationalities of all these aboard weren’t instantly recognized. A Coast Guard spokesman informed The Associated Press that eight Haitians had been hospitalized.
The Coast Guard launched the trouble after personnel on a Customs and Border Protection helicopter noticed the overturned boat shortly earlier than midday.
“If not for that, we would not have known about this until someone would have found any sign or received reports from people that their loved ones are missing,” the spokesman, Ricardo Castrodad, informed the AP.
In January, a single survivor was rescued after a 25-foot boat capsized off Florida after it left the Bahamas carrying dozens in a suspected smuggling operation.
The man was discovered by a business mariner who noticed him clinging to the overturned boat.
The Coast Guard mentioned the variety of Haitian migrants it has intercepted has swelled to almost 4,500 since October, up from 1,500 in all of fiscal yr 2021 and simply over 400 in fiscal yr 2020.
The obvious surge in migrants comes because the nation — one of many poorest on the planet — has seen violent gang fights go away a whole bunch displaced and dozens killed and injured in its capital metropolis, in accordance to the United Nations.
Earlier this yr, (*11*)a U.N. official mentioned the nation was within the throes of an “acute political and institutional crisis.”