haitianmigrants

Another man is in police custody over his suspected involvement in the deaths of the Haitian migrants whose vessel overturned on the choppy seas in the early morning hours.

Police say the man is 54 years old and joins the two other smugglers caught on Sunday. Police said they know the two Bahamian traffickers from previous criminal acts in the country.

17 Haitians including a child died when the speed boat used for human smuggling, capsized in Bahamian waters on their way to Florida.

The dead included 15 women, one man, and a child. The other 25 passengers were rescued from the 30-foot speedboat.

It was reported that 60 people may have boarded the boat and authorities were searching for approximately eighteen people who are unaccounted for.

The survivors said they paid the three smugglers $3000 to $8000 to catch the boat ride to Miami, Florida. 

Haiti has been plagued with gang violence and economic and political instability for many years. But things have worsened following the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse last July.

The chaos has led many Haitians to flee the island-nation in search of a better life.

The southern islands of the Bahamas have been inundated with the influx of Haitian migrants over the weekend.

Authorities captured nearly 400 Haitian migrants on Sunday on an uninhabited island in the Ragged Island chain, after fishermen noticed a partially submerged vessel in the area.

This comes after 500 more migrants were captured in Matthew Town, Inagua on Saturday.

Officials said the groups will be deported as soon as they are processed.

In a video, Deputy Prime Minister Chester Cooper is seen speaking to the lively group in Inagua as they sit under a tent.

He tells them through an interpreter, “…You’ve had enough food and enough water. We are asking you to be patient. It is important that you follow the instructions of the officers. We want you to know that you have landed in the Bahamas illegally. Therefore we will help you, we will process you to return to your home,” as the migrants clapped.

ZNS reporter Lloyd Allen said in a social media post that the government was seeking to provide temporary housing for the migrants.

This influx comes as the authorities in the United States cleared a border camp in Texas, USA that sprung up with well over 30,000 Haitian migrants under a bridge.

According to Reuters, 12,000 migrants will appear before US immigration judges for stay, 8,000 were returned to Mexico and 2,000 were sent back to Haiti. The others were detained as the state decides its next move.