Nearly 100 people, mostly from Haiti, who were rescued from an overcrowded boat off the Florida coast were left without food or water for two days, according to the US Coast Guard.
A Coast Guard helicopter spotted the 96 Haitians, as well as a passenger from Uganda and the Bahamas, about 20 miles (32 kilometers) east of Boca Raton, Florida, last week. They were transferred to Bahamian authorities on Sunday.
The passengers told Coast Guard crew members that they had been at sea for a week and had had no food or water for the past two days. The 40-foot cabin cruiser was overloaded with 53 men, 35 women and 10 children, the Coast Guard said in a statement.
Nobody was hurt.
“The smugglers don’t care if you live or die,” Capt. Robert Kinsey of Coast Guard District Seven said, citing the ship’s lack of sustenance and overloading. “These people are lucky to be alive.”
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