Two boatloads of Haitian migrants trying to flee by sea detained in Caribbean

Jacqueline Charles, Miami Herald on Sep 23, 2025

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Two boatloads of Haitian migrants have washed up ashore in different areas of the Caribbean in back-to-back landings this week.

Jamaican authorities said about 40 Haitians traveling in an 18-foot canoe washed up on a beach in the Kensington district of Portland Parish around 1 p.m. Monday, local media reported. The Haitians had escaped into the community after arriving, but 21 of them were captured by authorities. The search for the rest continues.

The landing in Jamaica, located 100 miles west of Haiti’s southwestern coast, is the latest in a growing number of Haitians who have been trying to seek refuge in the English-speaking country as they find themselves struggling against escalating armed violence by criminal gangs, growing hunger and displacement from their homes.

According to the United Nations’s World Food Program, nearly half of Haiti’s 12 million people are facing acute hunger, while more than 1.3 million have been displaced from their homes by armed gangs.

The day before the Haitians’ arrival in Portland, a boatload with more than a hundred passengers was intercepted in the waters of the Turks and Caicos, located about 136 miles off Haiti’s northern coast.

The Royal Turks and Caicos Islands Police Force said the boat was carrying 103 migrants, including four children, and was first intercepted by a U.S. Coast Guard vessel, which reported a suspicious vessel heading toward Providenciales. The police marine branch, the TCI Regiment and the TCI Border Force were notified and deployed.

After the boat was turned over to Turks and Caicos officials, the migrant vessel was towed to South Dock Marina in Providenciales. There, the migrants were turned over to TCI Border Force for processing and their eventual return to Haiti.

To date, there have 18 interceptions in the British Overseas Territory, resulting in the detention of 1,510 undocumented migrants, the police said.

“Those attempting these journeys face perilous conditions at sea,” the police said. “Failure to adhere to our laws will not be tolerated.”

The uptick in migration comes as Haitians find traditional routes increasingly closed to them.

According to the U.N.’s International Organization for Migration, more than 189,750 Haitians have been returned to Haiti this year, with the Dominican Republic accounting for 98% of returnees, followed by the Turks and Caicos, the U.S., The Bahamas, Jamaica and Mexico. Earlier this year, the Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, stepped up immigration enforcement, deploying police officers to dozens of maternity wards in the country.

As a result, many of the more than 170,000 Haitians who have been forcefully returned are pregnant or lactating women, as well as children and newborns.

A U.S. Coast Guard cutter earlier this month returned 191 migrants to Haiti after they were interdicted 40 miles north of Cap-Haïtien. Two weeks ago, a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement flight also returned 132 deportees to the Cap-Haïtien. International airport without properly notifying Haitian authorities, sources told the Miami Herald. Asked about the deportations by the Miami Herald, ICE did not respond.

On Tuesday, Canada’s foreign minister, Anita Anand, during a high-level ministerial meeting at the United Nations in New York said with Haitians facing daily gang violence, “the people of Haiti deserve our unwavering support because regional security is at stake, we must act.”

Anand announced that the Canadian government, recognizing the challenges facing Haiti, will provide an additional $14.4 million in assistance to help improve maritime security in the Caribbean. Ottawa, she said, will work in close coordination with the 15-member Caribbean Community regional bloc known as CARICOM, as well as the United Nations and G7 countries.

“The initiative will help to curb the flow of narcotics and arms in and through Haiti, while enhancing maritime security across the wider region,” Anand said during the Economic and Social Council, ECOSOC, meeting at the U.N. co-presided by Haiti.