Group found on the uninhabited island of Mona being used by smugglers as a drop off point for ships leaving the Dominican Republic.
More than 100 Haitian migrants have been found on an uninhabited island near Puerto Rico, US authorities said, as Haiti continues to be plagued by a humanitarian crisis caused by rising gang violence.
Park rangers working for the Puerto Rico Department of Environment and Natural Resources found the group on Mona Island, US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) spokesman Jeffrey Quinones said Tuesday.
“What we do know for now is that they were transported in just one ship,” he said.
It was not immediately clear if anyone in their group had drowned before authorities were briefed on the situation. Quinones said authorities are still questioning the migrants.
Anais Rodriguez, secretary of the Puerto Rico department that found them, said the group included 60 women, including three pregnant ones, as well as 38 men and five children, ages five to 13.
Happens now!
USBP Ramey Sector is currently working on a smuggling operation across the sea involving about 104 migrants who ended up on Mona Island. The Natural Resources Public Relations Department provided the first information, and efforts by several agencies to rescue the migrants are ongoing. pic.twitter.com/rx7pgywAxW
— Scott D. Garrett, Acting Chief Patrol Agent (@USBPChiefRMY) October 18, 2022
Increasing numbers of Haitian migrants and asylum-seekers have attempted to reach the US, often by sea, in recent months as the Caribbean nation has been hit by rising violence and political instability.
The United Nations warned late last week that acute hunger is currently affecting about 4.7 million people across the country.
A gang blockade at Haiti’s main fuel terminal in the capital, Port-au-Prince, has led to severe shortages of electricity, water and food, particularly in the city’s already impoverished areas where violence is rife.
Hospitals have been forced to cut services due to a shortage of gasoline needed to run generators, and the crumbling health care network has hampered efforts to respond to a dangerous cholera outbreak.
Meanwhile, the Haitian government has urged the international community to help build a “specialized force” to crack down on the gangs — but Haitian civil society leaders have dismissed the prospect of foreign intervention.
US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield said Monday that the United States and Mexico are working on draft Security Council resolutions in response to the ongoing crisis.
The first would impose financial sanctions on Haitian “criminal actors” involved in the recent spate of violence, Thomas-Greenfield said, while the second would authorize “a non-UN international security assistance mission” in Haiti to restore security and to support the flow of humanitarian aid.
It remains unclear which countries would participate and in what capacity. Thomas-Greenfield said the mission would be led by a “partner country” but did not say which that would be.
White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre also dodged questions about the possible Haiti mission Tuesday, telling reporters during a news conference only that “talks are ongoing.”
As the security situation in Haiti deteriorated following the assassination of President Jovenel Moise last year and conditions in host communities elsewhere in the Americas worsened, new waves of Haitian asylum-seekers have headed to the United States.
On Sunday, the US Coast Guard said it rescued nearly 100 people, mostly from Haiti, from an overcrowded boat off the Florida coast. The passengers told Coast Guard crew members that they had been at sea for a week and had had no food or water for the past two days.
Meanwhile, from October 2021 to March 2021, 571 Haitians and 252 people from the Dominican Republic were arrested in waters around Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands, according to the CBP. Of the Haitians, 348 landed on Mona Island and were rescued.
Smugglers often use Mona Island as a drop-off point for ships leaving the Dominican Republic, often telling migrants they’ve reached Puerto Rico, even though Mona Island is uninhabited and inhospitable, Quinones said.
“Smugglers don’t care about the safety of the people they transport. You’re basically stacking them in a boat,” he said.