396 Haitian migrants detained on 50-foot boat near Bahamas
The U.S. Coast Guard has detained a boat carrying 396 Haitian migrants near the Bahamas in one of the biggest human smuggling incidents in the region, Bahamian officials said.
The migrants were detained close to the far-flung Cay Sal island located between Florida and Cuba, immigration officials in the Bahamas said in a statement Sunday.
They said the migrants would be processed on the Bahamian island of Inagua and later repatriated.
Nicole Groll, a U.S. Coast Guard spokeswoman, told The Associated Press on Monday that the interdiction happened Saturday afternoon and involved a 50-foot boat.
No further details were immediately available.
Thousands of Haitians are fleeing a spike in gang violence and deepening political instability in a country with no democratically elected institutions.
Many travels to the Bahamas and other nearby islands to eventually reach Florida. The voyages are often deadly, with migrants crowding into makeshift vessels that have capsized in recent months.
The departure comes as the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden recently announced that it would start turning back Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans at the Texas border who arrive illegally. The administration now offers humanitarian parole for 30,000 people a month from those countries if they secure a financial sponsor, apply online and pay their airfare.
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