Bahamian authorities continue search and recovery after suspected migrant boat capsizes
The Royal Bahamas Defense Force continued a search and recovery operation for missing migrants on Monday after a twin-engine Miami-bound speedboat capsized in waters near New Providence on Sunday, killing at least 17 people, including a child.
The migrants are believed to be Haitian nationals. Still, Bahamian authorities said they could not say with certainty if all migrants travelling on board the boat were of Haitian descent until their investigation was completed.
On his Twitter feed, Haiti Prime Minister Ariel Henry gave his condolences to the families of the victims. He used it to appeal to Haitians “for national reconciliation to solve the problems driving away, far from our soil, our brothers, our sisters, our children.” “This new tragedy saddens the whole nation,” he said.
The Caribbean Community regional bloc, known as CARICOM, also said it was “extremely saddened” in a statement. and extended its condolences to those who had lost loved ones during Sunday’s tragedy. “This latest disaster brings to the fore once again the desperate situation in Haiti and the reprehensible nature of the actions of those who are trying to take advantage of people trying to escape,” said the organisation, referring to the human smugglers that take people on the illegal ocean voyages.
The 30-foot boat was leaving the Bahamas when it overturned in rough seas, Bahamas Prime Minister Philip Davis said at a press conference Sunday. So far, 25 people have been rescued. The search operation had not turned up any new survivors or bodies between Sunday evening and Monday morning; a Royal Defense Force officer told the Miami Herald.
In a statement Monday, the Royal Defense Force narrowed the number of migrants travelling onboard the boat from 60 to about 45. The Bahamian government has used drones, divers and aircraft to search the waters since the island’s police first received reports about the capsized boat at 1:17 a.m. Sunday.
Authorities found the vessel half-sunk near the entrance of Nassau Harbor, with a survivor, a woman, still alive in an air pocket in the hull among several dead passengers. U.S. Coast Guard aircraft also looked for survivors.
The boat left from West Bay Street, a popular migrant jumping-off point in Nassau. In January, the defence forces intercepted a ship in the Sand Trap area carrying 20 migrants from several countries, including Haiti, Ecuador, Colombia and Honduras.
The Bahamas has long been a popular route for undocumented migrants seeking to get to the United States, given its proximity to South Florida. Sometimes migrants decide to leave after having lived in the country for years. Other times, they travel by boat from Haiti in the first leg and then wait for weeks or months to take a boat to Florida.
The boats can make the voyage in a shorter period of time than a Haitian sloop and evade detection more easily by dropping migrants off under cover of darkness. But the trips can be just as dangerous as the overloaded sailboats because they are usually overcrowded.
One woman told Bahamian outlet Eyewitness News that she was looking for a Haitian man she had housed after he recently came from Haiti by sea. He had wanted to go to the United States and hadn’t come home the night of the capsize, according to the outlet. “We just want to find out if he is alive,” she said, later telling Eyewitness News that she thought she saw him in a photograph among the tragedy’s survivors. All but one victim from Sunday’s disaster were female, including the child.
A similar scenario occurred in Puerto Rico in May when a migrant vessel overturned near the American territory’s western coasts. In that capsize, 11 people, all women, died. They were buried in a San Juan cemetery last month.
Louis Herns Marcelin, a Haiti-born social scientist at the University of Miami who studies Haitian migration with a research team at INURED, said one has to be careful in making any assumptions about why more women appear to be dying than men without additional information about recent trends among those taking the boats.
A plausible answer: Fewer Haitian women than men know how to swim. “Women are mostly involved in commercialising the products that result from fishing or the like,” he said. “In addition, swimming activities, even for leisure, are more common among men than they are for women.” Migration studies conducted by Marcelin’s team at INURED have shown that over the past 12 years, Haitian migrants have been primarily young men.
Guerline Jozef, co-founder of the Haitian Bridge Alliance, said that the root causes of Haiti’s deadly sea migrations must be addressed as the Caribbean country faces economic, political, and social instability. “We just buried 11 women not too long ago,” said Jozef, a Haitian activist, “People are dying in the Darien Gap, dying in Mexico, dying in Puerto Rico, dying in the Bahamas,” Jozef told the Herald her organisation receives calls daily from people looking for loved ones who went missing as they attempt to reach the United States, whether by land or sea. “We don’t know how Haitian lives have been lost trying to flee,” she said.
The advocate has been travelling to Puerto Rico as the island sees record numbers of Haitian migrants reach its shores. She fears relatives might not claim or identify the bodies because they or their deceased loved ones are undocumented. “We want to share condolences to each and every family member and let them know that we are here for them,” she said.
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