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El American captured exclusively the moment in which more than 300 Haitians arrived on Sunday aboard a precarious boat to the coast of Key Largo, in South Florida, and are under custody of the authorities, according to an official of Customs and Border Protection.
Many of them required medical attention, Walter Slosar, chief of the Border Patrol’s Miami Sector, said on Twitter.
Children and women were among those on the fragile and overcrowded boat, as the images show.
According to Adam Hoffner, CPB division chief, the boat was “in poor condition, let alone overload of the migrants, no life vests or anything like that on board.”
Those who did not jump overboard, are still in custody of the 7th Coast Guard district on Monday, a spokesman said.
The site of the incident, during which the boat went overboard, was near the Ocean Reef Club, a select gated community in Key Largo, not far from where in January another boat was intercepted by authorities with 176 Haitians on board.
The incident occurred a day after the Coast Guard intercepted a Haitian sailboat off Anguilla Cay, an islet belonging to the Bahamas, with 127 people on board.
Since last Oct. 1, 2021 (the start of fiscal year 2022), Coast Guard crews have interdicted 993 Haitians, compared to 1,527 recorded in fiscal year 2021.
“Increased patrols are stopping these unsafe voyages before lives are lost at sea,” the Coast Guard noted.
