Thirty Haitians dead after ship capsizes in Bahamas: US

About 30 Haitian migrants died after an overloaded freighter capsized in the Bahamas and 110 others were rescued in rough seas, the US Coast Guard said.
"Approximately 30 Haitian migrants are reported dead," said a statement from the Coast Guard yesterday, which cited information from Bahamian defence forces.
The estimated death toll from Monday's accident rose as the Coast Guard released harrowing images of a throng of passengers perched precariously on the overturned hull of the ship.
"The migrants were clinging to the hull of the ground 12 meter sail freighter when rescue crews arrived," the Coast Guard said.
All those on the hull were safely rescued but it was unclear how many passengers were still stranded in the water, spokesman Petty Officer Mark Barney told AFP.

"We are continuing to search," he said.

Rescuers faced stormy weather on yesterday, with winds of about 48 kilometres an hour, he added.
The vessel ran aground and then capsized off the coast of Staniel Clay in the central Bahamas on Monday evening, it said.
A Coast Guard MH-60 helicopter hoisted 13 people to safety and delivered a rescue raft. An HC-144 spotter plane and a C-130 transport dropped food, supplies and eight additional life rafts.
The Bahamian defence force, which first alerted the Coast Guard of the accident, also sent a patrol boat to help with rescue efforts.
Stern Lolo, director of Haiti's National Migration Office, said Haitians who brave the dangerous voyage to the Bahamas or the United States come mainly from the poor northwest of the country.

Haiti was already the poorest country in the western hemisphere before a 2010 earthquake, which left 250,000 dead and set the island nation's limping economy back still further.