Puerto Rico: Makeshift boat with Dominican migrants capsizes

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Federal authorities detained 17 Dominican migrants on Friday after their boat capsized near Puerto Rico’s northwest coast in the pre-dawn hours, with the U.S. Coast Guard searching for an estimated 10 others still missing.

Jeffrey Quiñones, a Customs and Border Patrol spokesman, told The Associated Press that those detained told officials that a total of 27 people were aboard the boat that struck a rock and turned over near Shacks Beach in Isabela.

“There are no indications that they have drowned,” he said of those still missing.

The boat, known as a yola, overturned about 75 yards (69 meters) from shore, U.S. Coast Guard spokesman Ricardo Castrodad told the AP. He said authorities received a 911 call from somebody who heard the migrants splashing and running.

No migrants have been rescued at sea, although he said the Coast Guard will continue looking.

The incident comes a day after the Coast Guard suspended a search for an estimated 34 migrants who went missing in waters off Florida, with five bodies found. They were aboard a boat that left Bimini, a chain of islands in the Bahamas that lies just east of Miami.