One dead, 18 missing as migrant boat capsizes off Puerto Rico
Wednesday, July 14, 2004
MIAMI, USA (AFP): US Coast Guard officials
recovered one body and rescued 12 people but were searching for 18 others who
were still missing Tuesday, one day after a migrant boat capsized off Puerto
Rico's Desecheo Island. The Coast Guard said
the 29-foot fishing boat fit the description of a boat stolen from Bahia Beach
in the Dominican Republic Monday morning. "So
far, search efforts have resulted in the discovery of one body in the water
this morning, the rescue of 12 migrants clinging to the overturned boat last
night and the location of one migrant, believed to be from this group, on
Desecheo this morning," the Coast Guard said in a statement.
"Preliminary information from those rescued indicates the possibility of
another 18 missing, from 32 migrants embarked on the vessel originally," it
said. So far this year, US Coast Guard
vessels have picked up 4,798 Dominicans trying to make their way into the
United States illegally. The migrants are almost invariably sent back to the
Dominican Republic.
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