The Cuban military searched for survivors yesterday after at least 38 Haitian migrants died as a boat in which they fled their country started taking in water and became stranded at sea.
The gruesome discovery was made on Saturday when the Cuban Coast Guard found the half-sunken boat about 100m off Point Maisi on the eastern shore of the island, the Cuban government said.
A statement from the Cuban civil defense agency read on state television said the dead included 21 men and 17 women. Another 87 people, including four children and seven women, were rescued and moved to an international migrants’ camp at Point Maisi, where they have been given assistance, the statement said.
The agency did not elaborate on the cause of the shipwreck, but rusty, decrepit and overcrowded boats carrying migrants from Haiti are often found in distress in the Caribbean Sea.
A similar tragedy occurred in July 2009 off the coast of Turks and Caicos Islands when a boat carrying dozens of Haitian migrants capsized and sank, forcing its passengers to jump overboard. The US Coast Guard managed to rescue 118 of the migrants, but at least 15 were found dead and about 70 others remained missing.
In 2007, a boat with at least 160 Haitians sank in the Caribbean Sea, leaving 82 passengers dead. Some of the victims were eaten by sharks swarming the warm waters in the area, survivors said.
Cuban officials said the coast guard and Red Cross continued searching for for more survivors around Point Maisi.
Under Cuban immigration procedures, migrants from Haiti who reach the island’s coast are usually given food and medical assistance before being sent back home.
Thousands of Haitian boat people have also been arriving in the US since the early 1970s and settling in Miami. However, in 1981, Washington and Port-au-Prince reached an agreement under which boats with Haitian migrants are interdicted at sea and their passengers returned to Haiti.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique