At least eight people died Saturday night when two small “smuggling” boats commonly used to transport migrants sank off San Diego near the Mexico border, authorities said.
“This is one of the worst maritime smuggling tragedies in California that I know of,” James Gartland, a San Diego Emergency Medical Services official, said Sunday, appearing to be referring to the migratory flows between Mexico and the United States.
The eight victims are adults, he added at a press conference, without revealing their nationality.
Help was called around 11:30 p.m. local time on Saturday by a Spanish-speaking person who informed them that a boat carrying about ten passengers had capsized.
The first boat “was overturned by the waves,” James Spitler, a San Diego Coast Guard official, said at the news conference. The second boat, which had eight other people on board – including the one calling for help – “managed to reach shore,” he continued.
There, rescuers spotted the two small “capsized” fishing boats on the shore before retrieving the bodies of the victims from the sea, Gartland said.
They “found no survivors during their operations,” but people were able to reach shore and “off the beach,” Gartland said.
The area where the boats are located is “very dangerous even in broad daylight,” with strong currents and powerful waves, he estimated.
The city of San Diego is very close to the border between Mexico and the United States.
Many migrants cross them illegally, an issue that has become a political issue for Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration.
“Since 2017, human trafficking has increased 771 percent off the Southern California coast,” Coast Guard Spitler said Sunday, saying 23 people have died at sea since 2021.
Migrants who want to escape poverty or violence in their countries of origin often take enormous risks to set foot on American soil.