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13 Missing/Dead Overturned Fishing Boat East Caribbean, NE of St Kitts

1378 Views 12 Replies 5 Participants Last post by  MarkofSeaLife
MRCC Fort De France has been broadcasting a Mayday Relay all afternoon.

Their accent makes it difficult to understand but we have just clearly heard that 13 people are missing overboard from an overturned fishing vessle yesterday afternoon. Apparently wreckage has been located with a precise L&L this afternoon.

A SAR Aircraft has been on AIS in the search area but no other vessels are in the area, none heading toward the area.

That just seems weird.

If 13 people were swimming I would be screaming at every boat to get their butts over and help search.

Remember, hypothermia isn't really a problem here. People can survive swimming for days.

Its really quite disturbing. Either they know the reports are BS or.... or... don't get into trouble because no one is going to help!


Mark
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Yahoo News says

3 dead, 13 missing in Caribbean sinking; 14 Africans saved

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — At least 14 people from the African nation of Cameroon were rescued from waters in the eastern Caribbean early Tuesday after their boat capsized, but three people were dead and 13 others missing, authorities in St. Kitts said.
The group had departed Antigua early Tuesday aboard a boat carrying 32 passengers that apparently was en route to the U.S. Virgin Islands when it sank near the island of St. Kitts, Anthony Comrie, head of the St. Kitts-Nevis Defence Force, said at a news conference. He said the group had been staying on the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe, but left there a week ago for Antigua.
“My government has been making every effort to be helpful to these brothers and sisters from Africa who were marooned on Antigua, including by granting them residence and the opportunity to work,” Antigua Prime Minister Gaston Browne said
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In a different report it was said
The boat was stolen
There were 2 locals aboard, who survived
The others were from Cameron

Sounded like a human trafficking operation.

Much more to this story than is being told.
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An update here. Apparently no more survivors.
More on the exodus from Cameroon to Antigua.

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That's absolutely awful. I used to drive through Smith Bay USVI every morning on the way to work and see crowds of Chinese people carrying suitcases wet up to their armpits waiting for CBP (pre-homeland security). They'd get scooped up, sorted out and ultimately shipped off to America. They and the Cubans. Everyone else got deported. But that was 25 years ago. I've stayed out of that fray for many, many years now.
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Surprising little follow up on this story.
In a story that seems related, we've just had a case of a human smuggling situation gone wrong with people trying to cross the St. Lawrence River:

(CBC News) Police recover 2 more bodies from St. Lawrence River near Ontario-Quebec border

Dead, 8 in total, believed to have been families trying to enter the U.S. illegally
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More politics and lies wrapped up in the Caribbean one.
Sad world we live in at times.
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Mike,
Soooo many questions about that story.
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Mike,
Soooo many questions about that story.
Like what made the ship sink and how did those 2 survive?
Like what made the ship sink and how did those 2 survive?
As far as the news coverage says, it was an overloaded small open motor boat. And it appears that the now one missing person may have been the ferry man trying to take this boat of people across the St. Lawrence River.

As anyone who has travelled this area can tell you, the currents are swift here. It's not a small river, and apparently the weather was poor at the time.
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More on te background.

This is worth a read.

Debacle.
Shows the full extent of the Caribbean.
People lives lost.
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