US Coast Guard teams are searching for 39 people who went missing when a boat believed to be used by human traffickers capsized off Florida on Tuesday.
A survivor, clinging to the overturned boat, informed authorities that the boat had sailed from the Bahamas’s Bimini island on Saturday night and had 39 other passengers.
The migrant, who survived the crash, told authorities that the boat sank 72.4 kilometers east of Fort Pierce Bay between Miami and Cape Canaveral, but none of the passengers were wearing life jackets.
The Coast Guard noted that they are continuing their search efforts in an area of 218 kilometers by air and land. It was not disclosed from which countries the passengers on the boat were from.
It is common for crowded boats carrying mostly Haitian or Cuban immigrants to the United States off the coast of Florida to capsize or sink.
US Coast Guard patrol teams patrol around Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Cuba, and the Bahamas.
The U.S. Coast Guard has apprehended 127 Cuban immigrants since October 2021 and 7,400 over the previous five years.
The increasing economic crisis on the Caribbean island of Haiti and the kidnappings of gangs have caused an increase in the number of Haitian immigrants trying to reach the USA by boat in recent years.