Many missing as Haiti boat sinks

Migrants often risk overcrowded boats to escape poverty at home A boat carrying up to 200 Haitian migrants has capsized off the coast of the Caribbean islands of Turks and Caicos, the US Coast Guard says. A spokesman said 113 people had been rescued from the sea, mostly by the Turks and Caicos authorities, but that at least two bodies had been found. Some of the injured were taken to hospital on the Caribbean islands. Haitians often travel through the islands in overcrowded boats, hoping to find work in the Bahamas or Florida. Lt-Cdr Matthew Moorlag of the US Coast Guard told the BBC his team had rescued 113 people who had been stranded on reefs and was helping local authorities in the search for those still missing. At least two bodies have been pulled from the water - earlier reports suggested that four had been found. "We're hopeful that we will be able to find survivors, however it has been a night and we have not located any additional people," said Lt-Cdr Moorlag. "We do have searches that are on going right now and we will have some aircraft up at first light." US officials earlier said a helicopter was on the scene and a cutter was making its way there. Unsafe crossing The boat had been at sea for three days when it accidentally steered into a reef as it tried to avoid being spotted by a police patrol vessel, one survivor, Alces Julien, told the Associated Press from hospital. Lt-Cdr Morlag said the migrants had been undertaking "a very dangerous journey". "Unfortunately many people lose their lives trying to reach the United States illegally, anywhere of 100 or more per year," he said, adding that the heavy loss of life was mostly due to overcrowding of vessels. "They don't have enough life-saving gear or signalling gear to ensure that they are able to survive if they do have any problems at sea," he said. At least nine people, including a pregnant woman, died in May this year when a boat carrying nearly 30 people, mostly Haitians, sank off the Florida coast. In May 2007, at least 61 Haitian migrants died when a boat carrying 150 people sank off the Turks and Caicos. Some of the survivors said the boat had been rammed by a patrol boat from the Turks and Caicos, then towed out to sea