At least five migrants dead, 66 rescued in waters off Puerto Rico

Aljazeera says At least five migrants drowned and another 66 were rescued in an incident involving a suspected human smuggling boat near an uninhabited island west of Puerto Rico, officials in the United States have said.

The bodies were found on Thursday by Puerto Rico Department of Natural and Environmental Resources Park Rangers on Mona Island, the Coast Guard said in a statement, adding that 66 survivors including two minors were safely ashore.

“The smugglers basically forced the migrants to disembark, it appears that five of the migrants drowned in the process,” Jeffrey Quinones, public affairs officer for US Customs and Border Protection (CBP), told the Reuters news agency in a telephone interview.

US Coast Guard spokesman Ricardo Castrodad told The Associated Press that the boat fled the scene, and it was unclear how many people were on board at that time.

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https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/7/28/at-least-5-migrants-dead-66-rescued-near-puerto-rico-waters