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10 Haitians Dead After Boat Capsizes off Bahamas 10 Haitians Dead After Boat Capsizes off Bahamas
(about 2 hours later)
At least 10 people from Haiti died and about 100 others were stranded off the coast of the Bahamas on Tuesday after an overcrowded boat capsized, the United States Coast Guard said. MIAMI — A 40-foot sailboat overloaded with Haitians ran aground Monday night near the Bahamas, killing at least 10 people aboard, the United States Coast Guard said Tuesday.
Dozens of people aboard the 40-foot boat were thrown into the water after it ran aground and tipped over Monday night, about 15 nautical miles southwest of Staniel Cay, the Coast Guard said in a statement. The Coast Guard described the vessel as a sail freighter. The vessel had been at sea for about nine days, with at least 100 people on board, a spokesman for the Coast Guard in Miami, Lt. Gabe Somma, said. None had life jackets.
The Coast Guard said a rescue craft and a MH-60 helicopter had been deployed to hoist people out of the water. Coast Guard crews have also dropped life rafts and food and other supplies to the migrants, who had been clinging to the hull of the sinking boat. The accident was the latest in a series of shipwrecks involving Haitian migrants, who pay smugglers to ferry them across dangerous waters to the United States in boats that are often unseaworthy. Many of the boats sail through the Bahamas.
A 108-foot patrol vessel operated by the Royal Bahamian Defense Force is on its way to the scene, the Coast Guard said. “This is just another example that highlights the dangers of illegal migration and taking to the sea,” Lieutenant Somma said. “The sea is unforgiving. These are dangerous vessels. They are unbalanced, overloaded, and they are not stable.”
Boats carrying people leaving Caribbean countries, including Haiti, often sail through the Bahamas in an effort to reach the United States. The vessel was spotted by fishermen late last week and reported to Bahamian authorities, he said. On Monday, Bahamian authorities asked the Coast Guard for assistance. A Coast Guard helicopter found the ship near Scrub Cay, about 20 miles from where it was first seen, Lieutenant Somma said.
The boat had run aground and capsized near Harvey Cay, in the Exuma chain. Ten bodies in the water could be seen from the helicopter, along with 30 people in the water and up to 60 clinging to the boat.
Thirteen people were hoisted onto the helicopter. During the night, the Coast Guard dropped food, water and eight life rafts.
“The water varies in depth,” Lieutenant Somma said. “For some it was waist-deep. For others, it was over their heads.”
A search was underway to find more survivors and recover more bodies, said Lt. Origin Deleveaux, a spokesman for the Royal Bahamian Defense Force. A Bahamian naval ship arrived Tuesday morning, and 110 survivors were brought aboard.
Three bodies have been recovered, Lieutenant Deleveaux said.
It was unclear from where the ship first sailed, he said.
“This has been an issue for the defense forces, because we have 100,000 square miles of waters and an issue because the geographical makeup of the Bahamas makes it very, very difficult to patrol our waters,” he said.
Last year, Bahamian authorities stopped 1,330 migrants at sea, while the latest voyage puts the number this year at more 1,400 with a month remaining in the year, he said.
Four Haitian women died off the coast of the Bahamas in October when their ship capsized 25 miles from Miami Beach. The captain and a crew member were charged in United States federal court.
October also saw the death of a Brazilian woman who drowned trying to make it to the shore at Palm Beach shore after traveling from the Bahamas with people from Ecuador and Haiti.
A Haitian teenage girl also drowned in Palm Beach in August.
“During this time of the year, there is always a spike,” Lieutenant Deleveaux said. “Even though the weather conditions are not favorable, we find persons will take the journey. We could surmise the situation in Haiti is not getting better — it may be getting worse — so they risk life and limb in search of a better life.”

Timothy Williams contributed reporting from New York.