Kendol Morgan, a government spokesman said that the bodies of 10 Haitians (5 men and 5 women] were recovered dead in the ocean off the Turks and Caicos Islands. It would seem that the illegal migrants, have attempted to reach the coast lined with reefs, on a boat overloaded after leaving a smuggler boat.

Morgan said that the survivors were questioned by police but has not been able to say exactly how many survivors there were or how many migrants had traveled on the on the boat of the smugglers, adding that a number of arrests had been made and that the territory police are investigating, along with immigration and customs officers.

Larry Mills, the acting director of immigration, declared in a Sunday statement that any would-be migrant coming to the Turks and Caicos Islands illegally is treated humanely but also questioned closely and returned home swiftly in accordance with the islands' laws.

Haitians have been coming to the Turks and Caicos Islands for years, fleeing severe poverty and the social turmoil of the Western Hemisphere's poorest country for jobs as construction workers, janitors, landscapers and bellhops... About 33,000 immigrants form an essential low-income work force on the islands, laboring to build luxurious beachfront homes, collect trash and carry suitcases for tourists...

HL/ HaitiLibre