A boat carrying Haitian migrants caught fire off Haiti’s northern coast, resulting in the deaths of at least 40 people and injuring many more, according to a statement from the International Organisation for Migration on Friday.
The vessel, which departed from Cap-Haïtien at around 4 a.m. on July 17 and was heading to Turks and Caicos, caught fire shortly after near Labadee. Carrying at least 80 people, it saw over 40 survivors rescued by the Haitian Coast Guard, according to the International Organization for Migration.
In a statement, Grégoire Goodstein, the IOM’s chief in Haiti, emphasized, “This devastating event highlights the risks faced by children, women, and men migrating through irregular routes, demonstrating the crucial need for safe and legal pathways to migration.”
In the same week as a deadly boat fire, a second group of Kenyan police officers arrived in Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital.
This deployment is part of a U.N.-backed international security mission aimed at combating heavily armed gangs that control at least 80 percent of the city and paving the way for new elections.
A report from the U.N. office in Haiti last month revealed that gangs killed at least 3,250 people between January and May.
This represents an increase of over 30 percent compared to the previous five months. The surge in violence has led to the displacement of more than 570,000 people.
The ongoing security problems have intensified a severe humanitarian crisis in Haiti, a nation struggling with deep-rooted poverty, where about half of its population faces acute food insecurity.
According to the IOM, over 86,000 migrants have been forcibly repatriated to Haiti by neighboring nations this year.
Since the arrival of several hundred Kenyan police officers in Haiti, they have been collaborating with the Haitian National Police on street patrols.
However, they have not yet commenced operations to address the violence in gang-dominated areas.
Dennis B. Hankins, the U.S. ambassador to Haiti, indicated that he expects these operations to commence “in the coming weeks.”Amid rising violence in Haiti, many Haitians have taken to the sea in search of refuge, often traveling in makeshift and unsafe boats.
The Turks and Caicos Islands are a common destination, along with the Bahamas and Florida’s coastline.
On Thursday, the United States Coast Guard and the Royal Bahamas Defence Force declared they were halting the search for 60 Haitian migrants who were believed to have departed the Bahamas for Florida on July 4.
The boat they were on reportedly had engine problems.
The IOM reports that accurately tracking maritime deaths is challenging due to “the remote nature of sea routes, the secretive nature of boat departures, and the limited information about their routes.”
Antoine Lemonnier, an IOM spokesperson in Haiti, stated, “Many boats depart from Haiti, and while some are intercepted by foreign coast guards, there are likely numerous vessels that go missing, and we may never learn about them.”
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