Spanish
Santo Domingo. - The body of a person was recovered this Friday after the shipwreck last night of a boat off the coast of Juanillo, in the east of the country, when it was heading with migrants towards Puerto Rico, while the authorities continue the search for several missing persons.
"So far, about 17 people have been rescued alive, including a minor, and the body of a deceased person has been recovered," the Dominican Civil Defense reported on its social media.
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According to survivors, there were about 40 people on the boat, added the institution, which specified that "it continues to search for several people who remain missing after the shipwreck". Earlier, the Dominican Republic Navy confirmed to EFE that 17 people were rescued alive. According to the Navy, they are ten Dominicans and seven Haitians who were traveling on the boat when it capsized at dawn off the coast of Juanillo, in the tourist area of Punta Cana, in the province of La Altagracia (east of the Dominican Republic). Local fishermen, the Navy, and various rescue and law enforcement agencies, such as Civil Defense, the Emergency Operations Center, Firefighters, National Police, and the 911 Service, participated in the rescue operations. Hundreds of Dominicans and Haitians try to reach Puerto Rico every year in fragile boats to try to improve their economic situation. A year ago, five people died when a boat capsized off the coast of Guacayanes, east of the Dominican Republic, while clandestinely heading to Puerto Rico. The fatalities were two women and three men, while 43 people were rescued alive at the time. According to the Missing Migrants Project of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), since 2014 at least 428 migrants have disappeared while trying to reach Puerto Rico by sea in a clandestine manner from the Dominican Republic. The years with the most missing persons on that irregular migratory route, according to the data collected, were 2022, with 104, and 2024, with 95, while five cases have occurred so far this year.
