Three migrants from Cameroon died and 13 others are missing after their boat sank Tuesday morning in the Caribbean Sea. The boat was stolen from Antigua and was carrying 32 people who planned to reach the U.S. Virgin Islands and apply for temporary protected status, as granted by the Biden administration last June.
According to officials from St. Kitts, they rescued 14 survivors early on Wednesday morning, while three bodies were recovered and 13 people remain missing. The survivors were hospitalized on Santorini with hypothermia. The boat had left Antigua a week ago, after the migrants had stayed on Guadeloupe for some time.
This is the latest tragedy involving illegal migrants who risk their lives on overcrowded and unsafe vessels to seek asylum in other countries. In December, three people drowned and dozens more were missing when a boat from Turkey capsized near Greece. In November, 27 people died when their boat sank in the English Channel.
According to the BBC, more than 600 Cameroonian migrants have been stranded in Antigua since last year, after they were lured by fake tour companies that promised to arrange their immigration to the U.S. Some of them paid up to $6,000 for charter flights that never materialized.
The authorities in Antigua and St. Kitts have launched an investigation into the involvement of local residents in the smuggling operation. The Prime Minister of Antigua, Gaston Browne, said his government had been trying to help the migrants by granting them residence and work permits.
The U.S. government played its usual role in the affair last June by dangling the offer of temporary protected status to natives of Cameroon.
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