40 People Killed In Haiti Migrant Ship Fire

Profitdee, Haiti/ILLUSTRATION UNSPLASH/Kenrick Baksh

JAKARTA - As many as 40 people died after their ship caught fire off the coast of Haiti earlier this week, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) reported on Friday (19/7), citing local authorities.

The ship left Haiti on Wednesday with more than 80 migrants and headed to Turks and Caicos, IOM said. Fourteen-one survivors were rescued by the Haitian Coast Guard.

Grégoire Goodstein, head of the country's IOM mission, blamed the tragedy as the cause of the escalating security crisis in Haiti and the lack of safe and legal migration routes.

Haiti's socio-economic situation is very concerning. Extreme violence over the past few months has only made Haitians take reckless action, "he said.

Haiti is grappling with gang violence, a dilapidated health system, and a lack of access to critical supplies, causing many Haitians to travel abroad.

The crisis in this Caribbean nation increased earlier this year when war between gangs exploded, forcing the government at that time to resign. The number of attempts to migrate by boat from Haiti has increased since then, according to IOM data.

But the chaos in the country has not stopped neighboring governments from repatriating tens of thousands of Haitian migrants.

More than 86,000 migrants have been forcibly repatriated to Haiti by neighboring countries this year. In March, despite rising violence and airport closures across the country, forced repatriation increased by 46 percent, reaching 13,000 forced repatriation in March alone, the agency said in a statement.

In recent weeks, the appointment of new Prime Minister Garry Conille and the arrival of several hundred foreign troops to support the Haiti National Police have offered new hope for overcoming this crisis. The UN Security Council-backed Multinational Security Support (MSS) mission, led by Kenya, is now starting operations in Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince.