‘At least 40 migrants have died, and several others were injured,’ the IOM said


Port Prince: 40 migrants died and several others were injured after a boat—they were traveling in— caught fire off the northern coast of Haiti, a UN agency said Friday.
The UN’s International Organisation for Migration (IOM) reported that the Haitian Coast Guard rescued 41 survivors, 11 of whom were hospitalised, including some for burns.
But ‘at least 40 migrants have died, and several others were injured,’ the IOM said.
The boat, carrying more than 80 people, had left the port of Labadee on Wednesday en route to the Turks and Caicos Islands, a 150-mile journey, the IOM reported, citing Haiti’s National Office for Migration.
There was no immediate information on the cause of the fire.
Migration from the poverty-stricken Caribbean country has been surging for months, as thousands of people flee a spike in violence from criminal gangs that now control wide swaths of territory.
“Haiti’s socioeconomic situation is in agony,” said Gregoire Goodstein, IOM’s chief of mission in the country. “The extreme violence over the past months has only brought Haitians to resort to desperate measures even more.”
Hundreds of police officers from Kenya have deployed in Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince, part of an international effort to bring stability to a country riven by political, social and economic chaos.
Criminal gangs now control 80 percent of the capital city, with residents saying they have faced murder, rape, theft and kidnapping for ransom.
SOURCE: AFP

Federal Govt decides to shut down utility stores from July 10
- 2 hours ago

Trump says will ‘take a look’ at deporting Musk
- 2 hours ago
Pakistan's Sadia Iqbal retains top spot in ICC Women's T20 bowler rankings
- 2 hours ago

KSE-100 index surges past 127,000 points
- 5 hours ago
Musk proposes new political party, targets lawmakers over Trump-backed spending bill
- 2 hours ago
Dubai successfully tests first air taxi
- 5 hours ago

Japan records hottest June in its history this year
- an hour ago

Over 50,000 evacuated as wildfires devastate Turkey’s Izmir
- 6 hours ago

Sindh govt declares July 5-6 public holidays for Youm-e-Ashura
- 3 hours ago
Govt upholds decision to import 500,000 tons of sugar
- 42 minutes ago

Polio campaign extended to age 15 amid new cases in older children
- 4 hours ago
US officially ends sanctions program on Syria
- 4 hours ago