At least eleven people died this Thursday when a boat capsized with dozens of migrants on board west of Puerto Rico, according to the US Coast Guard.
The Coast Guard indicated on its official Twitter account that so far they have managed to rescue 31 survivors, eleven women and twenty men.
The boat, suspected of illegally transporting migrants from the Dominican Republic, capsized approximately 10 nautical miles north of the Puerto Rican islet of Desecheo.
The Coast Guard, together with maritime units from Puerto Rico, have been carrying out a major rescue operation in the area since noon today.
According to the previous statement from the Coast Guard, it is “a case of massive rescue of an undetermined number of people in the water.”
Coast Guard watchers received a communication at approximately 11:47 a.m. local time (3:47 p.m. GMT) reporting that the crew of a Customs and Border Protection aircraft had seen an overturned boat with people in the water who appeared to be unharmed. lifevest.
Several MH-60T helicopters were sent to the area, from the Borinquen Air Station, and the Coast Guard patrolman Joseph Tezanos.
Personnel from the Maritime Units of the United Forces for Rapid Action (FURA) from the western municipalities of Aguadilla and Añasco are also supporting the work of federal agencies.
The maritime strip known as the Mona Canal, which separates the Dominican Republic from Puerto Rico, is a regular migration route and every week boats are seized.
The Coast Guard announced today that it repatriated 44 Dominicans to a Dominican Navy ship after two vessels were intercepted in the Mona Canal trying to reach the west coast of Puerto Rico illegally.
It is also the scene of shipwrecks like the one today. Three days ago, the coastguard reported that they had rescued a total of 68 people and that they had recovered the body of one deceased after her boat sank.
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