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The United States Coast Guard found a body and is still looking for 38 people reported missing after a boat in which they were being transported capsized, according to a survivor who assured that the ship left the Biminis Islands on Saturday, January 22, Bahamas. Authorities are also investigating the incident as a possible case of human trafficking.
The US Coast Guard alert is maintained for the disappearance of 38 people.
Helicopter teams, search planes and an aircrew from the United States Navy have already covered a vast area of more than 3,367 square kilometers between the Biminis Islands, west of the Bahamas, and Fort Pierce, Florida, according to the institution, which this January 26 confirmed the recovery of a body.
The operations were deployed after a survivor reported that the boat in which he was traveling with 39 other people capsized due to bad weather and halfway between Miami and Cape Canaveral, on Sunday, January 23, a day after they left from Biminis.
The accident coincided with a warning from the meteorological authorities in that area, due to constant winds of up to 37 kilometers per hour and waves of three meters, the Coast Guard recalled.
The survivor, who was found by a “good Samaritan” and clinging to the capsized boat over the weekend, said none of the boat’s occupants were wearing life jackets.
The man was taken to a hospital with signs of dehydration and overexposure to the sun.
Suspicions of “human trafficking”
The agency noted through its Twitter account that the incident is under investigation for “suspected human trafficking.”
However, a Coast Guard spokesman, Petty Officer José Hernández, indicated that they have not yet determined the nationalities of those on board.
This fact was recorded after another failed migrant crossing attempt last Friday, January 21, which ended with 32 people rescued from an overturned boat west of the Bimini Islands.
That area has become a frequent transit point for those who move people irregularly to the United States, Hernández stressed.
Most of the intercepted vessels usually carry citizens from Haiti and Cuba seeking to reach Florida waters.
Authorities say Haitian migrant boat crossings have become more frequent as the economic and political crisis in the Caribbean nation deepens and gang-related kidnappings increase. At least 159 individuals from that country have been intercepted by the coastguard since last October.
In addition, 557 Cuban migrants have been picked up at sea by the Coast Guard in the last three months.
With Reuters and AP