Seven migrants die in a sinking in the Dominican Republic

The civil defense reported on Sunday of seven bodies found, in a new assessment after the sinking off the Dominican Republic of a boat carrying around forty migrantsafter a third day of research.

The boat was heading for Puerto Rico, a territory of the United States located about 130 kilometers from the east coast of the Dominican Republic, when it was shipwrecked. According to the testimonies of survivors, he carried between 40 and 50 people, but the authorities could not at this stage confirm the exact number of people on board.

“We are finishing today with the discovery of another body,” the provincial Director of Civil Defense told AFP Fernando Castillo. The Civil Defense confirmed the results of 17 survivors on Sunday, including Haitians and Dominicans. A child is among people saved.

Research continues

“We continue research because bodies continue to appear, but we do not know exactly how many people were aboard the boat,” added Fernando Castillo.

Rescue teams will resume research on Monday and, depending on the results, will assess whether or not it is advisable to end operations to find the missing. “We miraculously saw people appear after four, five or six days” in previous disasters, the director of civil defense, Juan Salas, told AFP.

Several rescued people claimed to have seen other people alive in water and the authorities do not exclude that some migrants were able to cling to floating objects or managed to reach the shore. “The field of action was therefore extended. Today, we will fly over the area again with larger -capacity devices, ”said Juan Salas.

Yola

The boats called “Yola”, like the one who was shipwrecked, are built of wood or fiberglass and do not comply with safety standards, according to the authorities. A Yola can transport up to 100 people.

Migrants pay up to $ 7,000 (5,600 francs) for a single one to Puerto Rico from the Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, a country in the grip of violent gangs accused of many abuses.

The Dominican navy said that migrants “tried to travel illegally to Puerto Rico, off the coast of Juanillo, in the province of Altagracia”, in the extreme east of the island, very close to Punta Cana. The illegal immigration from the Dominican Republic to Puerto Rico has been an increased phenomenon for the past decade.

AFP

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