339 rescued from sinking boat

Press, 6 August 1987, Page 6

339 rescued from sinking boat

NZPA-Reuter Miami

The United States Coast Guard rescued 339 Haitians from a sinking fishing boat headed for the United States, a Coast Guard spokesman said yesterday. It was the largest group of Haitian "boat people” ever intercepted while trying to escape their impoverished, strife-torn nation, said the spokesman, Joe Dye. The boat was spotted 240 km north-west of Haiti by a Coast Guard helicopter late on Tuesday. Coast Guardsmen who boarded

the vessel found it listing dangerously and the engine compartment full of water The Haitians were taken aboard a Coast Guard cutter and then watched as their rickety, 21-metre boat sank, Mr Dye said. “They are extremely lucky we came along when we did,” he said. The rescue put at -681 the number of United States-bound Haitians intercepted by the Coast Guard in the last two weeks, twice as many as in the same period last year, he said.

Mr Dye said the number of people risking the perilous 1000 km voyage from Haiti to south Florida had Increased sharply in recent weeks because of a wave of violent strikes and anti-Govem-ment protests sweeping Haiti. Coast Guard officials estimate that as many as half of those who attempt the voyage perish at sea. The cutter Steadfast was en route to Port-au-Prince yesterday to turn the Haitians over to the Red Cross there, Coast Guard officials said.