Dozens of migrants crammed onto a makeshift vessel that was taking on water were rescued near the Dominican Republic on Monday night, officials said.
The "grossly overloaded" 35-foot vessel was detected about 13 nautical miles off the northeastern coast of the Dominican Republic, the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) said Tuesday.
Coast Guard Cutter Joseph Napier, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection aircrew and a Dominican Republic navy patrol boat worked together to rescue the migrants.
The cutter crew approached the vessel and handed out life jackets to all the migrants on board. As the makeshift vessel took on water and grew unstable, the Coast Guard crew brought seven migrants aboard their vessel while the remaining 53 were taken aboard by the Dominican Republic navy patrol boat.
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The USCG eventually transferred the seven migrants to the Dominican navy boat.
"I am extremely proud of our crew's execution of last night’s rescue," said Lt. Matthew Carmine, commanding officer of Coast Guard Cutter Joseph Napier "Their seamless interoperability with our CBP and Dominican Navy counterparts helped save 60 lives."
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Last month, the Coast Guard intercepted nine unlawful migration voyages in the Mona Passage and waters near Puerto Rico. In those cases, a total of 206 non-U.S. citizens, including 201 Dominicans and five Haitians, were stopped.
Over the previous year from October 2022 to September 2023, the Coast Guard stopped 67 unlawful voyages, interdicting 2,161 non-U.S. citizens, including 1,871 Dominicans, 264 Haitians, 15 Venezuelans, seven Kazakhs, two Colombians, one Albanian and one of unknown nationality.
