Coast Guard stops overloaded Haitian migrant boat off Bahamas

The U.S. Coastline Guard stopped an overloaded sailboat with virtually 180 people today crammed on its deck off the Bahamas Sunday evening.

The 179 people today had been to start with sighted by a Coast Guard air crew close to 11 p.m. sailing about 30 miles off Andros Island, the agency reported.

Two cutters, the Self confidence and the Harriet Lane, stopped the vessel and took the people today on board. The Coastline Guard claimed they ended up transferred to the custody of the Royal Bahamian Defense Drive on Tuesday.

The federal governing administration tracks maritime migration by the fiscal yr, commencing and ending Oct. 1. If the quantities of Haitian migrants stopped at sea carry on on their recent trajectory, fiscal year 2022 will surpass final fiscal year, which observed the most individuals interdicted by the Coastline Guard given that FY 2019.

Due to the fact October, the Coast Guard stopped 993 Haitian migrants headed to Florida, when compared to 1,527 in all of fiscal 12 months 2021. In fiscal yr 2020, the Coast Guard only encountered 418 individuals from Haiti at sea.

The Coastline Guard is also viewing a surge in Cuban migrants on the Florida Straits, the most considering that fiscal calendar year 2017. Experts stage to deteriorating financial and political problems within just both of those nations.

Sunday’s quit also carries on a trend of Haitians boarding overloaded sailboats as a migration usually means. In January, a group of 176 men and women had been stopped in close proximity to the exclusive gated north Essential Largo local community of Ocean Reef.

On Xmas Eve, the Border Patrol took 52 individuals from Haiti into custody immediately after their sailboat arrived off a remote two-lane freeway in the vicinity of Ocean Reef referred to as Card Audio Highway. In November, 63 Haitian migrants also arrived on a sailboat in almost the exact same locale off Card Audio Street.

The Coastline Guard Tuesday issued a assertion urging migrants from equally Cuba and Haiti not to possibility their life seeking to migrate to the States on such journeys. Not only is it incredibly harmful, migrants are likely to be returned to their homelands if caught.

“The chance of a effective migration voyage is lower, and when these voyages are stopped, folks must hope to be returned to their country of origin,” Lt. Vladimir Jimenez, regulation enforcement responsibility officer with the Seventh Coastline Guard District command center, stated.

This story was originally posted March 1, 2022 4:56 PM.