The U.S. Coast Guard has just captured a 50ft boat that contained over 400 Haitian illegal immigrants onboard.
The boat was detained off the coast of the Bahamas and per Bahamian officials, it’s one of the biggest human smuggling busts in the Bahamas ever.
US Coast Guard officials stated the boat was “grossly overloaded and very much unsafe”.
Bahamian officials will now send the Haitian migrants back to Haiti.
Just look at how packed that boat was:
🚨 HAPPENING NOW: US Coast Guard intercepts sailing vessel from Haiti carrying 390 migrants.
Authorities to transfer the migrants to The Bahamas. pic.twitter.com/9IRAsYi1MO
— Upward News (@UpwardNewsHQ) January 23, 2023
Fox News reported more on the story:
The U.S. Coast Guard detained a 50-foot boat crammed with nearly 400 Haitian migrants near the Bahamas on Saturday in what Bahamian officials described as one of the largest human smuggling incidents in the region.
The 396 migrants were intercepted near the remote Cay Sal Bank, an island located between Florida and Cuba, the Bahamian Department of Immigration said Sunday night.
Nicole Groll, a U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) spokesperson, described the dangerous conditions aboard the vessel to the Associated Press on Monday.
“It was grossly overloaded and very much unsafe,” she said.
Bahamian officials said they will be processed on the Bahamian island of Inagua and repatriated to Haiti.
Officials did not immediately provide further details.
The boat was likely carrying the hundreds of migrants to the Florida Keys, the Miami Herald reported, citing sources.
The U.S. Coast Guard has intercepted a boat carrying nearly 400 people from Haiti near an isolated island in the Bahamas.
They said the migrants will be processed on the Bahamian island of Inagua and later repatriated. https://t.co/4eGo18MCBo
— WLRN Public Media (@WLRN) January 23, 2023
WLRN got the scoop too:
The U.S. Coast Guard has detained a boat carrying 396 Haitian migrants near the Bahamas in one of the biggest human smuggling incidents in the region, Bahamian officials said.
The migrants were detained close to the far-flung Cay Sal island located between Florida and Cuba, immigration officials in the Bahamas said in a statement Sunday.
They said the migrants will be processed on the Bahamian island of Inagua and later repatriated.
Nicole Groll, a U.S. Coast Guard spokeswoman, told The Associated Press on Monday that the interdiction happened Saturday afternoon and involved a 50-foot boat.
“It was grossly overloaded and very much unsafe,” she said.
JUST IN: 🇺🇸 US Coast Guard intercepts Haitian boat carrying 390 migrants into the United States.
— Remarks (@Remarks) January 23, 2023
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