40 people killed in migrant boat fire off Haiti’s coast, says aid agency

Gang violence, a collapsing health system, and a lack of access to essential supplies have driven many Haitians to attempt dangerous journeys out of the country.

At least 40 people have died after the boat they were traveling in caught fire off the coast of Haiti earlier this week, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) reported on Friday, citing local authorities. The vessel left Haiti on Wednesday carrying over 80 migrants, and was headed to Turks and Caicos, the IOM said. Forty-one survivors were rescued by Haiti’s Coast Guard, it also said. In a statement, Grégoire Goodstein, IOM’s chief of mission in the country, blamed the tragedy on Haiti’s spiraling security crisis and the lack of “safe and legal pathways for migration.” “Haiti’s socio-economic situation is in agony. The extreme violence over the past months has only brought Haitians to resort to desperate measures even more,” he said. Haiti is grappling with gang violence, a collapsing health system, and a lack of access to essential supplies, leading many Haitians to embark on dangerous journeys out of the country. The Caribbean nation’s crisis escalated earlier this year when gang warfare exploded, forcing the resignation of the then-government. The number of migration attempts by boat from Haiti have risen since then, according to IOM data.