In the last five months the Dominican Armada (Navy) has impounded 154 boats that were being used for illegal journeys to Puerto Rico and rescued or arrested 911 people. Of those rescued 854 were Dominican, 45 Haitian, 6 Venezuelan, 4 Chinese, 2 Americans, one Italian and one Brazilian. In total 36 people have appeared in court in connection with the Illegal Traffic of Migrants of whom 28 are captains and the rest are journey organizers. Following court appearance 26 were sentenced to preventive custody awaiting trial and 10 have to make periodic appearances and are out on bail.
Of the 154 boats involved, 60 were not properly registered, 37 were registered (but the owners did not have authorization to leave port), 16 were Haitian owned, 26 were fiberglass, 12 were canoes, two speedboats and one semi-submersible.
The figures are based on illegal journeys carried out in the last five months from 23 August 2018 to 21 January 2019.
Due to increased surveillance of the areas of the coast from where the boats usually departed, there is now a new route leaving from Peravia province, even though it is much further to Puerto Rico from there.
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Hoy
23 January 2019
