Battered Sailboat Carrying 101 Migrants Lands on Hallandale's Beach

Mar 28, 05:31 PM

Current Headlines: By Macollvie Jean-Francois, Marlene Naanes and Lou Toman, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Mar. 28--HALLANDALE BEACH -- Officials said more than 100 Haitians migrants aboard a wooden fishing boat landed on the city's beach Wednesday morning. At least nine were hospitalized and at least one person died in the crossing.

The dilapidated 30- to 35-foot single-mast sailboat ran aground a short distance from the beach at Hallandale Beach Boulevard and A1A shortly before 7 a.m. The rickety boat and its human cargo quickly drew a crowd of onlookers.

TV cameras showed a number of passengers jumping into the rough surf and swimming a short distance to the nearby shore. Some appeared weak, disoriented and seasick.

All were taken to a nearby city fire station where officials said they counted 101 people. It was not immediately clear if any of the passengers were children.

Each of the migrants were being checked by paramedics and at least nine were in serious enough condition that they were taken to Memorial Regional Hospital for treatment. Officials there said the nine were treated for dehydration symptons and reported that three were in critical condition, four were listed serious and two were in good condition.

Other ailing migrants were believed taken to a hospital in Aventura.

The Coast Guard and local authorities were searching for other possible migrants.

Ludner Ermitus, 26, who said he helped sail the boat from Île de la Tortue , an island off Haiti, said the sailboat was at sea about 20 days. He said all aboard were from northwest Haiti and said the decision to sail was prompted by a bleak future that included no jobs and economic misery.

"I know (the U.S.) is a big power. They help most countries in the world. I come to see what they can do for me ... I would really not like to go back to Haiti," Ermitus said.

Others on the boat said they were supposed to sail to Nassau in the Bahamas, but they got lost.

Still others said there was fighting on the boat during the voyage and no water or food. Some passengers drank seawater to survive and most were seasick.

The people on the boat were lucky to make a landing, a Coast Guard spokeswoman said.

"The boat was unseaworthy and grossly overloaded," said Petty Officer Jennifer Johnson.

Police spokesman Andrew Casper said one person died at sea, but had no details.

Officials said they found a body in the surf around 100 yards from the boat and said that the person had been one of the boat's passengers.

Casper said early risers having coffee at the Beachside Cafe spotted two boats -- one large and another described as a dinghy -- in the breezy waters shortly before 7 a.m. They watched as the big boat grounded and people began swimming or stumbled to shore in the rough surf. Some were suffering from hypothermia. All were taken to the fire station that is close to the landing site.

The police spokesman said some of the migrants said they had been at sea seven days while others said they counted 22 days since leaving Haiti.

The landing drew a crowd to the beach.

One of the onlookers was Hans Ottinot, 38, a city attorney for Sunny Isles Beach who immigrated to America from Haiti with his parents when he was age 5. He'd heard about the landing on the news and came to see for himself.

"I had to see my people," Ottinot said. "I want to make sure they treat my people right."

A spokesman for the Border Patrol said 90 of Wednesday's migrants were to be taken from the firehouse to its facility in Pembroke Pines for processing. The remainder were in the hospital.

Most, if not all, of the migrants will be turned over to federal immigration authorities. Haitians who illegally make it into the U.S. are generally sent back, but most Cubans who reach U.S. soil are allowed to stay under U.S. policy.

Last year, Coast Guard agents patrolling the waters of South Carolina, Florida and the Caribbean stopped 6,061 migrants, 769 of them from Haiti.

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Copyright (c) 2007, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.

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