In one of the largest cases of human smuggling in the area, the U.S. Coast Guard stopped a boat carrying 396 Haitian migrants near the Bahamas, according to Bahamian officials.
Immigration officials in the Bahamas announced the migrants' detention in a statement on Sunday. The migrants were held close to the remote Cay Sal island, which is sandwiched between Florida and Cuba.
They said that after being processed on the Bahamas' island of Inagua, the migrants would be sent back home.
There were no other details available right away. A representative for the U.S. Coast Guard claimed to be unaware of any details regarding the event.
Thousands of Haitians are escaping a rise in gang violence and escalating political unrest in a nation with no democratically elected institutions at the moment.
Many attempt to reach Florida by way of the Bahamas and other surrounding islands. The journeys are frequently fatal, with migrants jammed onto improvised boats that have capsized recently.
The exodus occurs as the Joe Biden administration of the United States recently declared that it would begin turning back illegal immigrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela at the Texas border. Now, the government will grant humanitarian parole to 30,000 citizens of those nations each month if they find a sponsor, fill out an online application, and pay for their flight.
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