21 Boat People Perish Off The Haitian Coast

Haiti - FLASH : 21 boat people perish off the Haitian coast
10/04/2015 06:43:30

In the night from Wednesday 8 to Thursday, a sailboat with onboard fifty Haitian, who was trying to leave the country, despite unfavorable weather, for Providenciales an island of the archipelago of Turkey and Caicos located 200 km north of Haiti sank.

Marie Alta Jean-Baptiste, Director of the Civil Protection Directorate explained that the incident occurred while the boat was trying to regain the Haitian coast, due to bad weather. The sailboat struck a reef and capsized before sinking, off the Haitian coast near the locality of "Nan Bak", neighboring of Borgne (about 160 km north of Port-au-Prince) and Port-Margot (North Department).

12 passengers were able to return land, 21 died in the shipwreck. The Justice of Peace of Borgne found 11 dead bodies (8 women and 3 men), 10 other bodies washed up on the coast of the town of Borgne (west of Cap-Haïtien) were recovered by relatives of the victims.

The Civil Protection volunteers, the acting Executive Officer of Biorgne and the Vice-Delegation of the Borough of Borgne coordinate research, with the help of local fishermen.

HL/ S/ HaitiLibre