Authorities in Haiti have confirmed that about 40 people are missing, after a migrant vessel sunk on the northern coast of Haiti.
Haiti’s civil emergency agency said seven people were rescued yesterday by search teams scouring the seas off the island of La Tortue.
The vessel sank after leaving La Tortue earlier in the day for Providenciales Island in the northern Turks and Caicos archipelago, 200 kilometres to the north.
According to the survivors, three of whom were hospitalized on their return to Haiti, the vessel was
In a country where more than 60 per cent of the population lives on less than US$2 a day, there are carrying 50 people when it sank.frequent attempts to reach the Bahamas or Turks and Caicos illegally.
Just last week, the Department of Immigration in the Ministry of Border Control and Employment, confirmed the arrival of a number of illegal Migrants, following reports of a possible more than 150 men, women and children of Haitian nationality, were found in and around the waters of West Caicos.
The Task Force in the Department of Immigration, apprehended and ferried those migrants to the processing unit in Providenciales for processing and repatriation to their native home – the Republic of Haiti.
Meanwhile the Department of Immigration in the Ministry of Border Control and Employment continues to remind the public that harboring illegal migrants is a crime and that such persons can now face a fine of $20,000 on summary conviction or to a term of imprisonment of four years, or to both. In addition, persons acquiring status other than by birth that are convicted of such an offense, face the possibility of having their status in the Islands revoked, thereby making them liable to deportation.
