At least 17 lives were lost after the sinking of a ship carrying Haitian migrants, the Bahamian government said on Sunday.
Fifteen women and one child were among the victims who were trying to travel illegally to the United States.
Rescuers were able to rescue twenty-five (25) other people during the operation.
“The boat would have capsized in the face of rough seas,” said Prime Minister Philip Davis in a statement noting that the ship left Haiti with about 60 people on board, probably bound for Florida.
“This new tragedy saddens the whole nation”, tweeted the Haitian Prime Minister, Ariel Henry, who has been in office for a year but has not found the formula to improve the living conditions of the population and to stop these kinds of exoduses.
The much contested head of government, who sent his sympathies to the parents of the victims, is once again calling for national reconciliation in order, he says, “to solve the problems that cause our brothers, sisters and children to flee from our land.
Faced with rampant insecurity and misery, Haitians seek at all costs to leave their country, in search of a better life elsewhere. This is usually at the risk of their lives. The authorities of foreign countries discourage them to take such a risk.
163 Haitian refugees are expected this Monday, July 25, 2022, in Cap-Haitian, inform the local authorities of the National Office of Migration.
On June 23, 103 Haitians were repatriated to Haiti by the U.S. Coast Guard. Most of them were from the northwest and were intercepted off the coast of Cuba while trying to reach Miami.