The US Coast Guard has suspended the search for survivors from a suspected migrant boat which capsized off the coast of Florida last week.

Published 3 years ago

According to Coast Guard officials, 40 migrants headed out to sea Saturday night January 22 from Bimini in The Bahamas, but their 25-foot boat capsized a short time later.

Officials said a lone survivor was found on Tuesday morning about 45 miles east of Fort Pierce Inlet by a Good Samaritan who was aboard a commercial vessel.  This survivor told authorities that no one was wearing a life jacket.

“Without life jackets, anyone is disadvantaged to survive in the water. Life jackets save lives, no matter the circumstance,” said Capt. Jo-Ann Burdian, Coast Guard Sector Miami commander.

The maritime disaster in the Florida Straits comes amid a surge in seaborne migration on both coasts of the United States as thousands of people board flimsy boats in a desperate attempt to reach the country.

The Coast Guard at times has intercepted more than 100 Cubans, Dominicans and Haitians crammed into a single boat in choppy Florida waters. On the other side of the country, smuggling networks have ferried loads of undocumented immigrants from Yemen, Mexico and Central America, sailing from Mexico to Southern California.

In July 2021, Yachting Monthly published an article– Migrants at sea: the dos and don’ts of helping those in distress – in which Elaine Bunting spoke with a number of yachts skippers who had encountered migrants at sea in the Mediterranean and European waters.

The information and advice in the article is still pertinent for cruisers in many of the areas around the world where migrants are trying to get to a new country by sea, such as Europe, Africa or South-East Asia and Australia.

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Related News:

• Search Ends After Boat Capsizes
  
• Dozens Reported Missing After Boat Capsizes off Florida Coast
  
• A Surge At Sea:  Migrants Seek Entry to the U.S. Aboard Flimsy Boats (NY Times)
  
• UK:  Sharp Increase in Migrant Boats Crossing the Channel in Small Boats (Noonsite)

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Noonsite has not independently verified this information.