MIAMI - The crew of the Coast Guard Cutter Bear repatriated 174 migrants to Port-au-Prince, Haiti, today at 3 p.m. 

The 174 Haitian migrants were traveling north toward the Bahamas early Sunday morning when the Coast Guard located their 50-foot, green wooden vessel 28 miles southwest of Great Inagua, Bahamas.

While two small boat crews from Bear were passing lifejackets to the migrants some of them fell over the side of the overcrowded vessel. The small boat crews quickly recovered 28 migrants, and another was rescued by an HH-65 Dolphin helicopter from Air Station Miami.

Once all the migrants remaining on their vessel had lifejackets, they were safely transferred to the Bear, and their homemade vessel was destroyed as a hazard to navigation.

One migrant suffering from a back injury was temporarily medevaced to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for medical attention, but was returned to the group after treatment to be repatriated.

One of the migrants on board told Coast Guard interpreters that he knew of at least five people who had died of suffocation in the hold of the vessel, but were buried at sea. The migrant’s reports are unconfirmed at this time.

“Vessels like this one are not just accidents, but tragedies, waiting to happen,” said Capt Hurst, Chief of Operations for the Seventh District. “If one storm hit a vessel this overcrowded, it could mean 174 people dead.”

The migrants included 140 adult males, 32 adult females and two children.  Once on board Coast Guard cutters, all migrants are given food, water, and medical attention if necessary.

The Bear also assisted five people aboard the motor vessel Lovely Express, a 175-foot Haitian ferry. The vessel was disabled 53 miles north of Jeremie, Haiti, and unable to get a mechanic on board. Damage control crews from the Bear embarked the Lovely Express with supplies and food, and the team was able to restore power to the ship with an auxiliary generator. Unfortunately, the engines overheated before the ship’s crew could move to safe haven from Hurricane Jeanne, and the Coast Guard Cutter Forward towed the Lovely Express to Port-au-Prince, Haiti.