Death toll reaches 45 from Christmas Day boat sinking; plus other news on migrants

U.S. Coast Guard cutter.jpg

Shipwreck off Cuba coast has killed 45

SAPA-AFP - Friday, December 30, 2011
"The number of victims has reached 45," Ambassador Jean Geneus (of Haiti) said in a telephone conference call from Havana. "There was also about ten bodies that could not be recovered" because they were trapped in underwater caves, he said.

The Cuban Coast Guard on Saturday discovered the half-sunken Haitian boat just off Point Maisi on the eastern shore of the communist-ruled island. They put the toll the following day at 38 and said that another 87 people, including four children and seven women, had been rescued. Geneus said it is difficult to know the exact number of people who had been aboard the ship, but said it was "at least 160." The survivors will be flown on Friday to Port-au-Prince, Geneus said.

Rusty, decrepit and overcrowded boats carrying migrants from Haiti are often found in distress in the Caribbean Sea. In 2007, a boat with at least 160 Haitians sank in the Caribbean Sea, leaving 82 passengers dead. According to survivors, some of the victims were eaten by sharks swarming the warm waters in the area.

Thousands of Haitian boat people arrived in the United States since the early 1970s, settling in Miami, Florida. But in 1981, Washington and Port-au-Prince reached an agreement under which boats with Haitian migrants are interdicted at sea and their passengers returned to Haiti.

Haiti is still recovering from a devastating 7.0-magnitude quake in January 2010 that leveled the capital, killed more than 225 000 people, and left one in seven people homeless in a nation that was already the poorest in the Americas. The humanitarian situation has been further aggravated by a cholera epidemic that has killed more than 5 000 people, food insecurity affecting 4.5 million and an active hurricane season that destroyed homes and crops.

Shipwreck in Cuban Waters: 38 Haitians Perish

Havana, Dec 25 (Prensa Latina)--Cuban authorities reported the sinking of a boat of Haitian migrants in the eastern part of the island, leaving 38 people dead. According to the National Civil Defense, coast guard forces spotted the vessel about 100 meters east of Punta de Maisi, in the province of Guantanamo.

In the search and rescue efforts 87 people were saved, 80 men and seven women, including four children, who are being treated at the International Migrant Camp in Punta de Maisi. So far 38 bodies have been recovered: 21 men and 17 women.
 
Combined forces of the Cuban Red Cross and local authorities continue search and rescue activities in the area.
 
38 Haitian migrants die when boat sinks off Cuba
 
 
HAVANA -- Cuba says 38 Haitian migrants have died after a boat they were in sank off the island's eastern coast. According to an official communique read out on state television, 87 others were rescued by Cuban civil defense forces after Saturday's shipwreck, including four children. A search was on for more survivors.
 
The boat was spotted in the sea off Cuba's Guantanamo province, some 590 miles (950 kilometers) from Havana. The province is home to the U.S. naval base where terror suspects are held. It was not clear where the Haitians were heading, though Cuba likely was not their intended destination.
 
The dead included 21 men and 17 women, according to the communique.
 
More News on Haitian Migrants
 
Canadian media has apparently been so moved by the tragic deaths of so many Haitian migrants on December 25 that it couldn't bring itself to report on it. But on the positive side, compassion reigns for several skiers in western Canada who died after ignoring avalanche warnings. Their fate has been top of the news for days on end.
 
The Nassau Guardian reports on Dec 28 that a 60 foot ship carrying 244 migrants from Haiti arrived in Bahamian waters on Dec 25. It was intercepted by the Bahamian navy and the people on board were detained. Another Guardian report says that Bahamanian authorities intend to repatriate the arrivals. Two other boats carrying a total of 107 migrants landed or were intercepted during the preceeding week.
 
The Miami Herald reports that on Dec 23, a U.S. Coast Guard cutter intercepted a boat in international waters that had sailed from Cap Haitien carrying 112 people. The people were taken back to Cap Haitien.