Haitian Refugees: Capsized Boat Deliberately Overturned

Haitian migrants 'angry and revolted' at alleged boat ramming off Turks and Caicos. The Associated Press. May 8, 2007

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti: Survivors of the worst sea disaster to hit Haitian migrants in years were "angry and revolted" Wednesday as they accused a Turks and Caicos vessel of ramming their crowded sailboat twice before it capsized, killing 61 in shark-filled waters, a senior Haitian official said.

Reports about the alleged involvement of the Turks and Caicos boat has taken days to come out because the 78 survivors are locked in a jail-like detention center and barred from speaking to the media. Officials say about 160 migrants were jammed in the rickety sailboat when it capsized before dawn Friday, flinging most of them into the Atlantic Ocean less than a kilometer (a half-mile) off the Turks and Caicos Islands, 200 kilometers (125 miles) north of Haiti.

(Click here to read more)