More than 100 Haitian migrants reached South Florida shores Wednesday after at least three weeks in a dilapidated sailboat, officials said. One man died, and three people were in critical condition from dehydration.
Many of the migrants looked gaunt and exhausted as they were taken into custody. At least two teenagers and a 10-year-old were in the group. The body of one man who apparently drowned washed ashore.
“Our condolences go out to anyone who was on the boat who actually knew the individual,” said Zach Mann, a spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection in Miami.
At least 11 people were taken to a hospital.
Mann said the migrants told officials they had been at sea for more than three weeks.
Some swam to shore as the boat approached land, while others jumped out onto the beach after the roughly 30-foot wood and metal craft landed. Authorities brought to shore some who couldn’t swim.
“The boat was unseaworthy and grossly overloaded,” Coast Guard Petty Officer Jennifer Johnson said.
Haitians who illegally make it into the U.S. are generally sent back, while most Cubans who reach U.S. soil are allowed to stay under U.S. policy.
Last year, Coast Guard agents patrolling the waters of South Carolina, Florida and the Caribbean stopped 6,061 migrants, 769 of them from Haiti.