US Coast Guard suspends search for missing Haitians

MIAMI,  (Reuters) – The U.S. Coast Guard yesterday called off its search for up to 67 Haitian migrants  missing from a wooden sailboat that sank off the Turks and  Caicos Islands, saying they were presumed lost at sea.

Fifteen bodies were recovered by rescuers following the  wreck of the wooden sloop carrying up to 200 illegal migrants,  which hit a reef and went down late on Sunday off West Caicos,  a sparsely inhabited island popular with divers and boaters.
U.S. Coast Guard aircraft and vessels had helped Turks and  Caicos authorities rescue at least 118 people. The search for  those reported missing lasted more than two days.

“The decision to suspend this search is particularly  difficult because we believe there were many people onboard  this vessel that have not been recovered and are presumed lost  at sea,” said Rear Admiral Steve Branham, commander of the  Miami-based Seventh Coast Guard District that assisted the  search-and-rescue operation in the Turks and Caicos.

Authorities in the British territory in the Atlantic Ocean,  which lies between the southern Bahamas and the north coast of  Haiti, have started repatriating the surviving illegal migrants  back to Haiti.

Haitian migrants often leave their impoverished Caribbean  country in dangerously crowded boats, hoping to escape poverty  and find work in the Bahamas or Florida.
“Ill-advised voyages on grossly overloaded vessels are  inherently dangerous and should not be attempted,” Branham  said. “There are safe and legal ways to immigrate to the United  States. When people deviate from these means, tragedies occur,”  he added.

Last week, the Coast Guard intercepted 124 Haitian migrants  from what they called a “grossly overloaded” 60-foot (18-metre)  boat about 150 miles (240 km) southwest of the shipwreck site.  They were repatriated to Haiti on Monday.