At least 113 Haitian migrants have been rescued after their boat capsized and sank off the Turks and Caicos islands, the US Coast Guard said today.
Rescuers in small boats and helicopters plucked 113 survivors from the reefs and recovered two bodies after the shipwreck yesterday, Coast Guard spokesman Barry Bena said.
He said US Coast Guard cutters and aircraft continued assisting Turks and Caicos authorities in the search for more survivors among the estimated 160 to 200 people on board the vessel when it capsized.
Haitian migrants often leave their impoverished country in dangerously crowded boats, hoping to escape poverty and find work in the Bahamas or Florida.
The Turks and Caicos islands are a British territory in the Atlantic Ocean, between the southern Bahamas and the north coast of Haiti.
The Coast Guard initially said yesterday they had seen four bodies, but only two were recovered. The other two were not found, butMr
Bena said they might have been picked up by Turks and Caicos officials.
Last week, the US Coast Guard intercepted 124 Haitian migrants from what they called a "grossly overloaded" 18-metre boat about 240 kilometres southwest of the shipwreck site. They were repatriated to Haiti yesterday.
Reuters