TEHRAN, Apr 26 - Search teams combed the Caribbean on Thursday for 25 possible Venezuelan migrants missing after a boat sank in rough seas headed to the island of Trinidad, authorities said.
TEHRAN, Young Journalists Club (YJC) - At least nine others from the sunken boat had been pulled alive from the water, while officials said they were struggling to pin down exactly how many people had gone missing.
The number initially believed to be on the boat increased because officials discovered that several onboard had not been listed as approved crew members or passengers, said Lt. Kerron Valere of the Trinidad and Tobago Coast Guard.
The small craft left Venezuela on Tuesday and overturned in the sea at some point not far from shore, Valere said in a statement.
The Venezuelan government did not immediately make public comments about the accident involving suspected migrants.
Valere said Venezuela was leading the search within that nation's waters but the Trinidad and Tobago Coast Guard was assisting.
He said the official manifest listed 25 people on the boat, but authorities had determined that at least 34 were on the vessel.
Venezuelan opposition lawmaker Robert Alcalá said that 25 boarded in the Venezuelan port of Güiria but others illegally got on at another stop along the coast. He said fishermen had rescued several people after the sinking.
Dozens of relatives of the missing were in Güiria anxiously waiting for word back from the search vessels, he said.
Alcalá told The Associated Press that Venezuela's economic crunch of hyperinflation and food shortages drove the passengers — mostly women — onto the boat.
"They go to Trinidad because of the economic situation in this country," he said.
Source: AP
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