At least 15 dead after Haitian boat capsizes

updated 5:58 p.m. ET July 28, 2009

PROVIDENCIALES, Turks and Caicos - The handmade wooden sailboat, weighed down with about 200 Haitians fleeing poverty, tried to maneuver through the treacherous coral reefs when it was struck by heavy swells. It had no chance.

"The waves broke the boat apart," said Samuel Been, minister of public safety for the Turks and Caicos Islands. "It was frightening."

Tossed into the water, some managed to swim two miles to shore, while others clung to wreckage or the razor-sharp reef. At least 15 drowned.

Rescuers searched by sea and air Tuesday for nearly 70 more believed missing after the overloaded sailboat ran aground and splintered near the Turks and Caicos Islands.

The boat was carrying an estimated 200 men, women and teenagers when it struck the reef near West Caicos, part of an archipelago that has proven to be deadly for Haitians trying to escape their homeland in rickety vessels.

Such perilous journeys have long been common throughout the world, but the number of migrants risking their lives to cross borders has declined amid increased enforcement in the United States and Europe and due to a global recession that has eliminated many unskilled jobs. Still, people continue to take the chance, including the Haitians who crowded into a sailboat last week in northern Haiti.

15 die, more than 100 rescued

Fifteen people died and more than 100 were rescued after the boat failed to navigate a narrow pass between two reefs, according to the Coast Guard and Been, who spoke with 10 of the survivors.

Coast Guard boats, airplanes and a helicopter joined local authorities and volunteers in searching a 1,600-square-mile area, U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer 1st Class Jennifer Johnson. Any survivors in the water would be struggling with 23 mph winds and 6-foot seas.

"We hope that there are survivors and we can get them medical attention," she said. "However, as time goes by, it becomes less and less likely because of exposure and fatigue."

Turks and Caicos is a magnet for divers who come to explore its clear, shallow waters and reefs — conditions that also make it treacherous for boaters unfamiliar with the jagged outcroppings of coral that lie menacingly just below the surface in some places.

Y. Yajima / AP

Hiding from the police
The Haitians had been at sea for three days when they spotted a police vessel and tried to hide, accidentally steering the boat onto a reef, survivor Alces Julien told The Associated Press.

"We saw police boats and we tried to hide until they passed," he said at a hospital where survivors were treated for dehydration. "We hit a reef and the boat broke up."

But Deputy Police Commissioner Hubert Hughes said officers were not pursuing the migrant vessel — which did not have a motor — and were involved only as rescuers.

"They were traveling in waters that are quite dangerous if you don't know the area quite well," he said.

Rescuers found survivors stranded on two reefs roughly two miles from West Caicos Island, said Lt. Cmdr. Matt Moorlag, a Coast Guard spokesman. Most were ferried to land by Turks and Caicos authorities in small boats.

Five survivors were found on West Caicos after apparently swimming ashore, Hughes said.

Been said one Haitian man dove off a rescue boat and tried to escape, but was caught.

"It wasn't hard to get him; he was already tired," he said.

Johnson said the boat sank Monday afternoon, but Hughes said it might have been Sunday night. Turks and Caicos authorities reported the capsizing Monday to the Coast Guard, which patrols the region for drug traffickers and illegal migrants and often helps in search and rescue efforts.

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