May 15, 2009 3:10 pm US/Eastern
11 Haitian Migrants Turned Over To Border Patrol
8.800 Miles Searched
Nine People Confirmed Dead, 16 Survivors
FORT LAUDERDALE (CBS4) ―
Coast Guard officials dropped off 11 of the surviving Haitian migrants that had been on one of their cutters. The group of 11 was turned over to Border Patrol and remains in custody now. This action came just hours after the search for Haitian migrants lost at sea was suspended. The U.S. Coast Guard announced Thursday night that it called off its search for more survivors after their boat capsized off the coast of Boynton Beach on Wednesday.
Nine people died and 16 people were rescued on Wednesday after the boat was spotted about 15 miles offshore. Included in the nine dead were six women, two men and a one year old girl. Of the sixteen survivors, ten men and a woman were being detained on a Coast Guard cutter at sea. The remaining five individuals, three women, one man and a young boy, were taken to area hospitals Wednesday. Thursday morning the Coast Guard announced that they had released custody of the individuals who had been hospitalized to immigration and customs officials.
Officials believe about 28 to 35 people, many of them Haitian migrants, were aboard the boat when it left The Bahamas for Florida.
"Our thoughts are with each of the lost, the survivors and their loves ones," said Rear Adm. Steve Branham, Seventh Coast Guard District commander, in an emailed statement. "The Coast Guard and our local, state and federal partners remain committed to protecting life at sea and our nation's maritime borders. We will continue to aggressively patrol for migrants at sea and rescue them when they are in peril."
Rescuers had expanded the search area miles to the north, with hopes that some of the passengers were wearing life jackets and were carried north on the Gulf Stream current. But after patrolling more than 8,800 square miles for 31 hours late into Thursday night, the Coast Guard ended the search for the boat which one of the migrants described as being white with a center console and twin engines.
The Coast Guard said they received a call around 12:30 p.m. Wednesday afternoon from a boater who said he had pulled three people from the water.
James Weber, a diver with Palm Beach Fire Rescue, was out doing exercises when the call came in. He helped recover a couple of survivors. "Their initial reaction was 'Oh God, oh God! Thank God, you guys saved us!' That was the words that came out of their mouths," he described.
The survivors said their boat had been carrying about 29 people, including women and children. Many had been in the water for from ten to twelve hours; only eight recovered had life jackets.
Wednesday evening Coast Guard members loaded the bodies of eight of the deceased onto Palm Beach County Fire Rescue stretchers at Phil Foster Park in Riviera Beach.
Worried family members waited for hours Thursday on the whereabouts of their loved ones. But the answers never came.
Gens Flermont is among those living in agony. Flermont said he got a phone call on Wednesday from someone saying that his 26-year-old son Elson was on board the doomed boat.
"I haven't been able to eat or drink," he told CBS4 News.
He says Elson ran a business fixing motor bikes in Haiti. "I thought he was living the good life. He wasn't supposed to do something like this.
Gurlene Desir lives in the Bahamas and told CBS4's Carey Codd in a phone conversation that her twin 19-year-old daughters paid $3,000 apiece for seats on the ill-fated boat. Desir said her daughters could no longer live in the impoverished Haiti.
"Haiti no good," Desir said in broken English. "No job. No food. No security. Nothing. They look for a better life."
Desir said her daughters planned to rendezvous with family in Miami and begin that better life. Now, Desir is waiting for word on whether her daughters are alive or dead.
Immigrant advocate Cheryl Little said these deaths once again spotlight the lengths people will take to reach American shores.
"People should not embark on these treacherous voyages," Little told CBS4's Carey Codd. "They are taking their lives in their hands."
Some of the immigrants being detained on a Coast Guard cutter told customs investigators that they left from Bimini, in the Bahamas, on a trip to South Florida. Investigators are working to determine if this was an ill-fated smuggling attempt. Coast Guard Captain James Fitton said the focus would remain on finding and recovering victims before looking at legal issues.
"It's a tragedy," Capt. Fitton said. "If this was a smuggling operation and somebody would be so callous with human life, it astounds us."
"The criminal investigation will be handled by ICE and CBP, not by the Coast Guard," said Fitton.
Since October 2008, the Coast Guard has stopped nearly 14 hundred Haitians from trying to enter the U.S.
Haitian activist Bob Jeune fears there will be more casualties because of the desperate situation in Haiti. "There is no food and no jobs." He's urging the Federal Government to grant temporary citizenship papers to the 30-thousand Haitians living in South Florida.
The Palm Beach County Medical Examiner's Office confirmed to CBS4 that they completed autopsies on 9 victims Thursday. However, the causes of deaths are not being released. The ME's office said they are working to identify the victims and notify family members. If a body is not claimed within 30 days it will be given a county burial.
CBS4's Marybel Rodriguez, Joan Murray and Carey Codd contributed to this report.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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