The Coast Guard in Miami reported this Tuesday the rescue of a man near the coast of Florida in the Caribbean Sea, who was found on top of a boat that capsized due to bad weather.
The survivor said he was traveling with 39 other people
who had left Bimini Island in the Bahamas on Saturday night and were headed to the United States.
"Coast Guard rescue teams are searching by air and sea for people in the water. This is suspected to be a migrant smuggling operation," US authorities said in a press release.
[Report four dead after the shipwreck of a boat that transported migrants in Colombia]
The migrant was rescued by a good Samaritan who alerted the Coast Guard after finding him clinging to his capsized boat about 45 miles east of Fort Pierce, Florida.
The man told authorities the boat capsized due to bad weather and
none of the crew members on board were wearing life jackets.
The Coast Guard, suspecting a botched human smuggling operation, launched a search of a 135-mile area from Bimini to Fort Pierce.
A cold front on Saturday night brought bad weather to the area around Bimini.
Tommy Sewell, a local fishing guide, told The Associated Press that there were winds of more than 20 miles per hour (32.2 km/hr) and heavy showers through Monday morning.
Coast Guard searches for nine Cuban immigrants missing in shipwreck
July 8, 202100:38
US immigration authorities warn of the dangers of trying to enter the country irregularly, particularly to those trying to make the journey by sea.
The islands of the Bahamas have long been used as a staging point for migrant smuggling operations into the United States.
They usually try to take advantage of periods of good weather to cross, but the weather often changes suddenly and
often the boats sail overloaded and are prone to capsizing
.
There have been thousands of deaths over the years.
[Border Patrol intercepts a boat with 16 undocumented migrants off the coast of San Diego]
"Navigating the Straits of Florida, Windward and Mona Passages...is extremely dangerous and can result in loss of life," the Coast Guard said, after 88 Haitian migrants were found last Friday crammed into a sailboat near of Great Inagua, in the Bahamas.
In May of last year, a dozen migrants from Cuba were presumed dead after they disappeared when they were shipwrecked off the coast of Florida.
The bodies of two other migrants who were traveling on that boat were recovered and eight more were found alive.
Two months later, another boat capsized near Kew West, Florida.
Although 13 Cubans were rescued on that occasion, nine disappeared in the water.