Rescued migrants walk on the shore off Mona Island, west of Puerto Rico, Thursday, July 28, 2022. At least five migrants drowned and dozens more were rescued Thursday after a suspected people-smuggling boat dropped the group in the waters near the uninhabited island west of Puerto Rico Rico, officials said. At least five Haitian migrants drowned and 68 others were rescued Thursday when an alleged people smuggler swept the group into waters off an uninhabited island west of Puerto Rico, officials said. The incident is the latest in a string of deadly voyages to the northern Caribbean carrying mostly Haitian migrants fleeing their country amid a deepening political and economic crisis and a surge in gang-related killings and kidnappings. Federal and local authorities searched the area near Mona Island for several hours after receiving a call from Puerto Rico Department of Natural Resources rangers who first spotted the migrants. Officials determined no other people were missing, based on interviews with survivors, US Coast Guard spokesman Ricardo Castrodad told The Associated Press. He said 41 men, 25 women and two children survived, adding that none had urgent medical problems. Jeffrey Quiñones, a spokesman for US Customs and Border Protection, said all the migrants aboard the boat were Haitian. Most people-smuggling boats carrying migrants from Haiti to Puerto Rico depart from the neighboring Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti. Some capsize in the treacherous Mona Passage that separates the two islands, while other boats drop off migrants on tiny uninhabited islands before reaching Puerto Rico. In that case, the boat carrying the migrants fled the scene, Castrondt said. The rescue comes days after authorities in the Bahamas recovered the bodies of 17 migrants and rescued 25 others after their boat capsized in the early hours of Sunday. A criminal investigation is underway. In May, 11 Haitian women drowned and 38 others were rescued after their boat capsized near Puerto Rico. “This happens every day,” Castrodad said. “Everyone is at the same risk and the same risk.” A growing number of Haitians are fleeing their country as gangs grow stronger after the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse on July 7, 2021. Just this week, authorities blamed gangs for torching a courthouse and a church as turf wars raged in the capital Port-au-Prince are stepping up. In addition, more than 470 people have been killed, injured or disappeared in less than a week amid gang violence in the nearby Cite Soleil slum, according to the United Nations. French medical charity Doctors Without Borders issued a statement on Thursday saying it had seen a “significant increase” in the number of victims hit by stray bullets. One of the emergency centers had nearly 80 gunshot wounds, most of them from strays, the organization said, adding that many residents were trapped at home and unable to leave due to the escalating violence as their bullet wounds wore off. “In some of these areas, (the agency) can only treat patients in basements or windowless rooms because of the risk of crossfire and stray bullets,” the medical charity said.
