At least three dead after a ship that apparently carried immigrants to the United States sank

At least three people have died and more than 20 had to be transferred to hospitals after a boat that was apparently used to transport undocumented immigrants was sank this Sunday off San Diego., in southern California (USA), authorities reported.

The crash happened Sunday morning off San Diego and everyone aboard the 40-foot vessel jumped into the water as the vessel slowly disintegrated, eyewitness videos showed.

“It was a contraband ship,” Jeffery Stephenson of the Customs and Border Protection Public Affairs Office told reporters. The people on board were likely migrants trying to enter the United States illegally, and “the border patrol officers are with a man we think is the operator.“.

“The smugglers don’t care about the people they exploit,” he said.

“The only thing that matters to them is profit. They had inadequate safety equipment and obviously this boat was seriously overloaded.

The 27 survivors were taken to hospitals with “varying degrees of injuries,” said Jose Ysea, a spokesperson for the San Diego Fire and Rescue Service.

Rescuers carried out seven rescues from the water and one from a cliffsaid the chief rescuer of San Diego, James Gartland.

The accident took place at a time when the United States is experiencing a large influx of undocumented immigrants to its southern border.

Officials and migrants say exodus was caused, to some extent, by increased poverty and violence in Central Americaas well as President Joe Biden’s promise of a more humane immigration policy.

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection said on Friday it was stepping up patrols off the coast of San Diego during the weekend to disrupt migrant smuggling routes.

“We have recently seen a dramatic increase in the number of maritime smuggling attemptsUS Border Patrol Senior Officer Aaron Heitke said in a statement.

“All of these illegal crossings at sea are inherently dangerous, and we have seen too many go from dangerous to tragic as smugglers sacrifice the safety of those on board for profit.”

Border officials on Thursday intercepted a panga-type vessel traveling without navigation lights 18 kilometers off Point Loma with 21 people on board.. The crew detained all 15 men and six women. Officers determined they were all Mexican citizens without legal status to enter the United States, according to a statement released by Customs and Border Protection. Two of the people on the ship, the suspected smugglers, will face charges.

Border Patrol said on Friday that law enforcement officials would increase their operations to disrupt maritime smuggling off the San Diego coast this weekend.

As warmer weather hits San Diego, it is mistakenly believed that it will make illegal crossings safer or easier.the agency said in a statement.

In early March, a pickup truck loaded with migrants collided with a trailer in the farming community of Holtville, Calif., About 200 miles east of San Diego. The crash killed 13 of 25 people inside the 1997 Ford Expedition, including the driver, in one of the deadliest border crashes in U.S. history.

With AP information

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