39 people disappear when a boat capsizes off Florida

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A cold front late Saturday caused severe weather in the Bimini region. Tommy Sewell, a local fishing guide, said there were 20 mph winds and heavy rain from Sunday through Monday.

Immigrants have long used the Bahamas as a springboard to reach Florida and the United States. They usually try to take advantage of the breaks in the weather to make the crossing, but the barges are often dangerously overloaded and prone to capsizing. There have been thousands of deaths over the years.

The Coast Guard patrols the waters around Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Cuba and the Bahamas.

For the most part, the immigrants are from Haiti and Cuba, but the Royal Bahamas Defense Forces reported arrests of immigrants from other parts of the world, including from Colombia and Ecuador, earlier this month.

The Coast Guard on Friday found 88 Haitians in an overloaded cargo ship west of the Great Inagua, Bahamas.

“Sailing the Florida Straits and the Windward and Mona Passes … is extremely dangerous and can result in loss of life,” the Coast Guard said last weekend.

Last July, the Coast Guard rescued 13 people after their boat capsized off Key West as Tropical Storm Elsa approached.

Survivors said they left Cuba with 22 people on board. Nine were lost in the water.

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