Death toll rises to 48 in Dominican shipwreck
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E-mail Xinhua, February 9, 2012
The death toll from a shipwreck in the Caribbean waters north of the capital of the Dominican Republic has risen to 48, authorities said Wednesday.
Navy officials said they pulled anther 22 bodies from the water along the coasts of the northeastern province of Samana.
Rescue officials said they were still searching for the bodies of the others missing after the shipwreck that occurred early last Saturday, when a wooden boat carrying an estimated 70 would-be illegal immigrants from the Dominican Republic capsized.
Hector Ramon Mendez, Chief of the Eastern Navy Command, told reporters that he expected the death toll to rise as the hope for finding more survivors is rather slim now.
Samana's Civil Defense Director Moraima Ramon said 13 people have been rescued so far, but the number could rise, as some of the passengers of the ill-fated boat could have reached the shore but they didn't report to authorities to avoid being arrested.
The wooden boat was sailing toward Puerto Rico, where many migrants from the Dominican Republic often seek refuge in the hope of finding a better life, when it capsized in large waves.
Shipwrecks that end with the death of would-be illegal migrants from across the Caribbean region are common, where hundreds of people every day risk their lives to flee conditions of endemic poverty in an attempt to pursue a better life in the United States.
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