Reprinted from the Jamaica Observer
PROVIDENCIALES, Turks and Caicos Islands (AFP) - Hopes dimmed yesterday for finding some 70 Haitian migrants still missing on the third day of search and rescue operations after their boat capsized in open waters off the Turks and Caicos Islands.
Rescuers continued to scour the area at dawn, but said they were not hopeful they would find more survivors among those who left the Americas' poorest country.
Local police, who are being assisted by the US Coast Guard, discovered overnight another body floating in the shark-infested waters, bringing the death toll to 16 passengers.
They also found one more survivor on the nearby island of West Caicos suffering severe dehydration. Authorities estimate that about 70 of the illegal migrants are still missing after their boat struck a reef, shattered and sank late Sunday.
Authorities have so far rescued 119 passengers - 16 of them on nearby West Caicos island after they managed to swim ashore - and many found clinging to the sharp reefs surrounding the islands.
The coast guard cutter Valiant was on scene searching throughout the night and an HU-25 Falcon jet was launched early yesterday, Johnson said.
An HH-60 Jayhawk helicopter would be launched later in the day for additional search operations, and a C-130 military transport plane was on site.
"It will probably be just a case of picking up more dead bodies. The survivors are in pretty bad shape; worn out, dehydrated and confused," Neil Hall, head of the islands' marine police, said Monday.
Johnson said several searches would take place Wednesday before the coast guard, in consultation with Turks and Caicos Islands officials, would determine the "proper time" to suspend the search.
Migrants from Haiti often undertake perilous journeys aboard precarious and often overcrowded boats headed for other Caribbean islands or the United States."
Thursday, July 30, 2009
