39 Missing After Boat Sinks Off US Coast

The United States Coast Guard has launched a search for 39 people reported missing when a boat capsized off the coast of Florida.

According to a statement issued on Tuesday, the Coast Guard in Miami received a report about a man clinging to a capsized vessel approximately 45 miles east of Fort Pierce inlet.

REUTERS reported that a survivor said the boat had left the Bahamas on Saturday night but encountered rough weather and capsized, and that no one on board was wearing a life jacket.

The Coast Guard is also calling it a case of human smuggling because an agency patrols the waters around Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Cuba and the Bahamas, which are routes often used by migrants trying to reach the U.S.

On Friday, the Coast Guard found 88 Haitians in an overloaded ship sailing west of Great Inagua, Bahamas.

Last July, the Coast Guard also rescued 13 people after their boat capsized off Key West. The survivors had left Cuba with 22 other people aboard.