Smuggler boat carrying 39 people capsizes off Florida

A survivor is found clinging to an overturned boat 60 hours after a smuggling vessel carrying 40 people from the Bahamas capsized during storms off the Florida coast

  • A search and rescue mission has been launched by the US Coast Guard after a boat carrying 39 people capsized off the coast of Florida on Saturday night.
  • The boat turned around about 45 miles east of Fort Pierce Inlet State Park after leaving Bimini Island in the Bahamas earlier in the evening.
  • A survivor found by a Good Samaritan on Tuesday said the boat capsized due to extreme weather and no one was wearing a life jacket.
  • The Coast Guard continues its investigation and calls it a suspected case of human trafficking

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A single survivor has been found after a boat carrying 40 people capsized just off the coast of Florida over the weekend.

The Coast Guard is still searching for other survivors after the boat, which departed Bimini Island in the Bahamas on Saturday night, capsized about 45 miles east of Fort Pierce State Park Inlet.

They were alerted by a Good Samaritan who found the surviving passenger clinging to the overturned vessel about 60 hours after it capsized. The survivor told the Coast Guard the boat flipped over after encountering extreme weather.

No one on the ship was apparently wearing a life jacket.

The Coast Guard called it a suspected case of human trafficking.

Officials said on Twitter that they were searching by both air and sea over an area of ​​about 135 miles stretching from Bimini to Fort Pierce Inlet.

The US Coast Guard launched a search and rescue mission for 39 people after a human smuggler boat capsized off the coast of Florida on Saturday night

Coast Guard crew members began their search after a Good Samaritan reported one of the survivors was found clinging to the boat

Coast Guard crew members began their search after a Good Samaritan reported one of the survivors was found clinging to the boat

Boat overturned about 45 miles from Fort Pierce Inlet State Park

Boat overturned about 45 miles from Fort Pierce Inlet State Park

Migrants have long used the islands of the Bahamas as a springboard to reach Florida and the United States.

They usually try to take advantage of breaks in the weather to make the crossing, but the ships are often dangerously overloaded and liable to capsize. There have been thousands of deaths over the years.

The Coast Guard patrols the waters around Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Cuba and the Bahamas.

Most of the migrants are from Haiti and Cuba, but the Royal Bahamas Defense Force reported apprehending migrants from other parts of the world, including Colombia and Ecuador earlier this month.

On Friday, the Coast Guard found 88 Haitians in an overloaded sailing freighter west of Great Inagua, Bahamas.

“Boating in the Florida Strait, Windward and Mona Passages … is extremely dangerous and can result in death,” the Coast Guard said in a statement last weekend.

The Coast Guard continues its investigation and calls it a suspected case of human trafficking

The Coast Guard continues its investigation and calls it a suspected case of human trafficking

Officials said on Twitter that they were searching by both air and sea over an area of ​​about 135 miles stretching from Bimini to Fort Pierce Inlet.

Officials said on Twitter that they were searching by both air and sea over an area of ​​about 135 miles stretching from Bimini to Fort Pierce Inlet.

The boat departed from Bimini Island in the Bahamas before the boat turned around on Saturday evening

The boat departed from Bimini Island in the Bahamas before the boat turned around on Saturday evening

Last July, the Coast Guard rescued 13 people after their boat capsized off Key West as Tropical Storm Elsa approached.

The survivors said they left Cuba with 22 people on board. Nine disappeared in the water.

Another boat smuggling 18 immigrants last May capsized off the California coast, killing one and injuring 11.

People on the ship were said to be wearing “floatation devices,” according to Chief Gartland of the San Diego Lifeguards.

“We had a smuggling event this morning, we have coast guard on site, customs and border control on site,” Gartland said.

“They dropped people in the water and then the ship decided to come on the beach and capsized on the beach.”

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