Fri | Mar 29, 2024

No official word on possible J’cans aboard doomed vessel

Published:Saturday | February 5, 2022 | 12:10 AMLester Hinds/Gleaner Writer

The Government is still working to determine how many, if any, Jamaicans are among the close to 40 persons presumed dead after a suspected human-smuggling boat heading from The Bahamas to Florida in the United States capsized two weekends ago.

Information so far suggests that at least one Jamaican is among the dead, although the person’s identity has not been publicly confirmed.

Unconfirmed reports indicate that the Jamaican may have been a deportee seeking to illegally re-enter the United States.

Jamaica’s consul general in Miami, Oliver Mair, told The Gleaner that his office has been in constant contact with the United States authorities to determine whether any of the five bodies recovered so far is of a Jamaican.

“We continue to reach out to the authorities and will continue to do so until we get all information or as much as we possibly can,” he said.

Mair added that while it was an ongoing process, there is not much hope that the exact number of Jamaicans who died in the incident will be determined, given that many of the bodies may not be recovered.

The sole survivor, a Colombian, has said that the 39 people on board the vessel were from Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Colombia. Information on the ground in Florida suggests that up to 12 Jamaicans could have been on the 25-foot ill-fated boat.

The vessel had departed from The Bahamas for Florida on Saturday, January 22.

In the early hours of Sunday, January 23, some 40 miles off the coast of Florida, the boat capsized when the engines failed and it began taking on water due to high waves. None of the passengers had life jackets.

The surviving 22-year-old Colombian man was reportedly spotted on Tuesday by a merchant vessel, clinging to the hull of the overturned boat.

He said that up to late Monday, a number of other people had been hanging on to the capsized boat, but worn down by hunger, dehydration and fatigue, they had let go of the hull.

He was picked up by the US Coast Guard, which found five bodies in the days following before suspending the search.

The Bahamas is a popular point along the high-risk human-smuggling route into the United States, where potential migrants could be charged as much as US$10,000 each for the two-hour trip across the treacherous waters into Florida.

Early last year, a boat on a voyage from The Bahamas with several people, including seven Jamaicans, ran aground in Fort Lauderdale after it was chased by the US Coast Guard.

editorial@gleanerjm.com