Over 120 rescued from Haitian migrant boat wreck

More than 120 illegal Haitian migrants were rescued after their wooden boat hit a reef and sank off the Turks and Caicos islands, local police and the US Coast Guard said yesterday.

It was unclear how many people were on board the vessel when it sank but estimates ranged from 160 to 200.

At least two bodies were recovered in the waters off West Caicos, a sparsely inhabited island in the British territory, following the shipwreck which occurred late on Sunday, a Turks and Caicos police spokesman said.

"The boat ran aground on a reef, Molasses Reef, off West Caicos... we've rescued 124 people - 22 females and 102 males - and two of the males were deceased," Sergeant Calvin Chase told Reuters by phone.

US Coast Guard spokesman Barry Bena said Coast Guard cutters and aircraft were assisting Turks and Caicos authorities in the search for more survivors.

The Coast Guard initially said on Monday that they had seen four bodies.

Sgt Chase said there were conflicting reports about how many people were on board the wooden boat, which he said was carrying illegal migrants from Haiti trying to reach the United States. An investigation was under way.

Haitian migrants often leave their impoverished Caribbean country in dangerously crowded boats, hoping to escape poverty and find work in the Bahamas or Florida.

The Turks and Caicos islands are a British territory in the Atlantic Ocean, between the southern Bahamas and the north coast of Haiti.