MIAMI – A man was using a yellow bucket as a small crowded boat with dozens was taking on water on Monday about 6 miles north of Cap-Haitien, Haiti, according to the U.S. Coast Guard.
Lieutenant Junior Grade Chelsea Chamberlain reported that the crew of the USCGC Dependable rescued the 33 on board and turned them over to Haitian authorities on Tuesday.
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“The people were actively bailing out water in heavy seas and if our crew hadn’t arrived when they did, the vessel would have likely succumbed to the sea,” Chamberlain, the USCG District Seven enforcement officer, said in a statement released on Wednesday.
The crew gave them orange life vests and brought them aboard the Dependable, a 210-foot medium endurance cutter tasked with conducting missions that include search and rescue, drug interdiction, migrant interdiction, and living marine resources law enforcement.
“Dependable’s crew did a great job of rapidly responding to the dangerous situation,” Chamberlain said.
Haitians who are desperate to escape the worsening security and humanitarian crises often risk their lives when they pay illegal migrant smuggling networks for dangerous sea voyages, according to the U.S. State Department.
U.S. government apprehensions of Haitian migrants have risen both at sea and on the U.S.-Mexico border.
During the first nine months of fiscal year 2023, U.S. Customs and Border Protection found about 105,370 Haitian migrants, up from nearly 56,600 found during the entire fiscal year of 2022. From October 2022 to mid-July 2023, the U.S. Coast Guard reported about 5,100 “interdictions and/or encounters.”
President Joe Biden’s administration extended and redesignated Temporary Protected Status for Haitians who were in the U.S. before Nov. 6, 2022. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security repatriates Haitians who attempt to enter the U.S. illegally after the TPS extension.
On Jan. 5, 2023, DHS announced Haitians who have a U.S. sponsor can apply for immigration parole and fly directly into the U.S. after vetting. DHS announced that any Haitian interdicted at sea after April 27, 2023, was ineligible for the parole program.