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PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- July 4, 2005 --A
boat carrying dozens of migrants fleeing Haiti sank off the
island's coast, killing two people and leaving 11 others feared
dead, a U.N. official said Monday.
The boat left the northern region of Cap-Haitien on Saturday
and was heading toward Turks and Caicos, said Damian Onses-Cardona,
spokesman for the U.N. mission in Haiti. Officials did not know
immediately what caused the boat to sink.
Haitian authorities found the bodies of two people and 11
others who disappeared were presumed dead, Onses-Cardona said.
Twenty-three people survived, he said.
Elima Joseph, director-general of the mayor's office in Cape
Haitien, put the number of deaths at 19. He said the victims
were all from about 19 to 25 years old.
There was no description of the boat, but the U.N. spokesman
noted that Haitians nearly always attempt to flee in rickety
wooden vessels.
Attempts to leave Haiti illegally have risen dramatically
since the February 2004 rebellion that ousted president
Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the country's first democratically
elected leader, now in exile.
Haiti is the poorest country in the Americas, and most of the
population is unemployed. Hundreds of people have been killed
since the uprising, mostly in politically motivated clashes
between street gangs, police and the 7,400-strong U.N.
peacekeeping force.
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