Late Saturday afternoon, August 6, a small overloaded sailboat with 113 Haitian migrants in an irregular migration situation on board ran aground near the gated community of "Ocean Reef Club" (North Key Largo, Florida).

Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation, Miami-Dade Police, Monroe County Sheriff's Office, U.S. Customs & Border Patrol and U.S. Coast Guard are among the agencies that was on site.

A number of Haitians jumped off the sailboat in an attempt to reach the coast, most remained on the boat as rescue teams intervened. The US Coast Guard said those who jumped overboard did not have life jackets and were all rescued by the crew.

Rescue teams transferred the Haitian migrants to Coast Guard ships. No injuries have been reported so far.

Walter Slosar, Chief of the U.S. Border Patrol, said "[...] This is a national security mission [...] We are working with our local law enforcement partners and our local community in order to transfer them into our custody and into the immigration process [...] This is an ongoing investigation and we are working to identify the smugglers who crammed these people onto the vessel."

In March of this year, 360 Haitians (According to the latest figures) aboard a large wooden sailboat, were also stranded off Ocean Reef Club https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-36116-haiti-usa-a-boat-carrying-more-than-200-haitians-ran-aground-near-ocean-reef-key-largo.html

SL/ HaitiLibre