The boat would have capsized in front of an agitated sea, after leaving the most populous island in the archipelago “with around 60 people on board”. The victims are all from Haiti, they borrowed a deadly migratory route for the United States.
Le Monde with AFP
Bodies of seventeen Haitian migrants were found lifeless and twenty-five other people were rescued at sea during a rescue operation which continued, Sunday, July 24, after the sinking of a ship Large of the Bahamas, announced the Bahamian and Haitian authorities. The boat which “capsized in front of an agitated sea”, according to the press release released by Prime Minister Philip Davis, left the most populous island in the archipelago “with around 60 people on board”.
Fifteen of victims are women, a man and a child also lost their lives in this accident. “We think that their final destination was Miami, Florida,” said the head of the Bahamian government.
“Seventeen compatriots died off the Bahamas and several [July 24. This new drama is allocating the whole nation,” tweeted Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry.
Thousands of people try to leave Haiti
The Bahamas, an archipelago of 700 islets (including 39 inhabited) located 80 km south-east of the Côtes de la Florida and north of Cuba, are regularly used as transit land by migrants who seek to join United States.
In Haiti, a country plagued by the crime of gangs, where almost half of the population suffers from food insecurity, many inhabitants regularly try to illegally reach Florida by sea, often stopping at the Bahamas or In the Turkish-and-Caican Islands, under British authority.
“I understand that the situation in which many of these migrants are confronted with them to take such great risks,” said Philip Davis who calls “however those who plan to make such a trip, not to do it” .