Up to sixty people are believed to have been on board, which means dozens are still missing.
A boat capsized a short distance from the Bahamas in the early hours of Sunday morning, killing 17 of the dozens of Haitian migrants on board, island authorities said.
The tragedy unfolded around 01:30 (local time; 08:30 Greek time), in a marine area 11 kilometers off the island of New Providence, as more and more Haitians try to immigrate to the US to escape poverty and gang violence in their country.
Search and rescue teams recovered the bodies of 17 people, including a child, while 25 others on board were rescued, Prime Minister Philip Davis said during a news conference. According to Mr. Davis, the speedboat the migrants had boarded was believed to have “capsized due to rough seas” as it headed in the direction of Miami (Florida, south).
According to police officer Clayton Fernander, up to sixty people are believed to have been on board, meaning dozens are still missing.
According to the authorities in the Bahamas, two people were arrested, as they are believed to be the traffickers. Immigration Minister Keith Bell said, citing survivors, that each passenger paid between $3,000 and $8,000 for the trip.
The US Coast Guard has intercepted and repatriated more than 6,100 Haitians at sea since last October. This is the highest number in the last twenty years.
In May, a boat carrying 842 Haitian migrants bound for the US veered off course and ran aground on the northern coast of Cuba. Earlier that month, 11 people drowned when a boat carrying Haitian migrants capsized a short distance from Puerto Rico.
RES-EMP
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