The U.S. Coast Guard has detained a ship carrying 396 Haitian migrants close to the Bahamas in one of many greatest human smuggling incidents within the area, Bahamian officers stated.
The migrants have been detained near the far-flung Cay Sal island situated between Florida and Cuba, immigration officers within the Bahamas stated in a press release Sunday.
They stated the migrants will likely be processed on the Bahamian island of Inagua and later repatriated.
Nicole Groll, a U.S. Coast Guard spokeswoman, advised The Associated Press on Monday that the interdiction occurred Saturday afternoon and concerned a 50-foot boat.
“It was grossly overloaded and really a lot unsafe,” she stated.
No additional particulars have been instantly out there.
Thousands of Haitians are fleeing a spike in gang violence and deepening political instability in a rustic that at the moment has no democratically elected establishments.
Many journey to the Bahamas and different close by islands in hopes of finally reaching Florida. The voyages are sometimes lethal, with migrants crowding into makeshift vessels which have capsized in current months.
The exodus comes because the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden not too long ago introduced that it will begin turning again Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans on the Texas border who arrive illegally.
The administration is now providing humanitarian parole for 30,000 individuals a month from these international locations in the event that they safe a monetary sponsor, apply on-line and pay their airfare.
