In its second similar occurrence in less than a month, the US Coast Guard reported on Tuesday that it had saved 34 Haitian migrants who had been abandoned by traffickers on an isolated island close to Puerto Rico.
The migrants were discovered after Department of Natural Resources workers in Puerto Rico saw many campfires on Monito Island, which is situated in the perilous seas separating the US territory from the Dominican Republic.
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The migrants were saved on Monday during seas of up to 15 feet (five meters), plunging into the ocean in succession while a tiny Coast Guard boat awaited them. According to authorities, the rescue took five hours.
The 26 males, seven women, and one kid were subsequently given to Puerto Rican US Border Patrol personnel.
Twelve Haitian refugees who had been on Monito Island for five days were saved by the Coast Guard in November. The same little island was the source of the rescue of another 27 Haitian refugees in late June.
A growing number of Haitians are leaving their nation due to increasing poverty and political unrest; many of them enter the Dominican Republic over the border after paying people smugglers to transport them to Puerto Rico, only to be dropped off halfway there. Numerous migrants have perished this year as a result of the frail boats carrying them sinking in choppy waters.
More than 320 migrants, mostly Dominicans, were apprehended by the Coast Guard between October 1 and November 30, according to reports. Unless they ask for asylum or have a criminal history in the US, all are given to US Border Patrol officials before being sent back to their home countries.
