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Posted: Tuesday 28 March, 2023 at 10:11 AM

One dead, 16 missing in boat mishap

By: Staff Reporter, SKNVibes.com

    BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - A boat mishap off the coast of Conaree early this morning (Mar. 28) has left one person dead, 16 others missing and members of the Police Force, Immigration and the Coast Guard are conducting investigations into the incident.

     

    According to preliminary investigations by the police, 32 people of a yet to be determined nationality were travelling aboard sailing vessel Jenna B when it encountered some trouble.

     

    Police reported that at the time of the incident, the vessel was 12 nautical miles South of Conaree.

     

    Sixteen persons were rescued and removed from the water at about 03:00hrs and one appeared to be dead. 

     

    According to information garnered from the Antigua Broadcasting Station (ABS), the 30-foot vessel had reportedly capsized and sank between Antigua and St. Kitts, with only half of its passengers being rescued. 

     

    ABS also stated that Chief of Defence Staff of the Antigua and Barbuda Defence Force, Colonel Telbert Benjamin confirmed the incident happened in the early hours of today, Tuesday, some 40 miles northwest of Antigua. 

     

    It further stated that a frantic search is now being carried out to find the other passengers, and Colonel Benjamin said the information that the Defence Force received suggested it is an Antiguan vessel which left Urlings. 

     

    “The Antigua and Barbuda Defence Force Coast Guard is collaborating with its St. Kitts and Nevis counterparts, as well as the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre from Martinique in the search effort at this hour,” ABS reported. 

     

    ABS further reported that the country’s Defence Force had also deployed its fixed-wing aircraft, Alpha One, in the search effort, while Colonel Benjamin informed that several other details are still being ascertained, including where the vessel was headed. 

     

    In recent months, a number of Haitian migrants have been making the long journey across torturous waters for a better life, following the instability within their country. 

     

    Oftentimes they were seeking to head up to the United States Virgin Islands or Puerto Rico. 

     

    But the boat captains had often been dropping them off at the nearest sight of land, tricking the unsuspecting migrants into thinking they had arrived at their intended destination. 

     

    That comes as the boat captains, who received large sums of money, had taken the longer route through the Eastern Caribbean Chain of Islands to get to their destination, in order to avoid United States Coast Guard personnel.
     

     

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