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3 Haitian migrants dead in Turks & Caicos detention centre

Pathologists from the Miami-Dade County Medical Examiner's Office were en route to the Turks and Caicos Islands Tuesday to investigate the case of three undocumented Haitian migrants who died while in custody.

The migrants are among 250 Haitians currently in custody in the island-chain after two rickety wooden boats from Haiti attempted to illegally land in the Turks and Caicos, government officials said.

The island government, which has a contract with the South Florida medical examiner's office, requested assistance after discovering that two of the Haitians being detained at its overcrowded detention center in the island of Providenciales had died Monday night. The third migrant died Tuesday while being treated for severe dehydration at a nearby clinic.

The Turks and Caicos Police have launched an investigation, and are awaiting the medical examiner's report for the exact cause of death, said Savitri Daniel, a government spokeswoman. They are also trying to identify the dead.

On Monday, Turks and Caicos medical personnel visited the detention center and treated several detainees for dehydration and minor eye infections, the government's information service said. Six were taken to a clinic, including one of the men who died.

A British dependent territory, the Turks and Caicos is located less than 200 miles away from Haiti's northern coast. On Friday, a sloop carrying 74 Haitians was detained by Turks and Caicos authorities after attempting to land in the island-chain. Two days later, another boat ferrying 176 persons also was stopped.

Earlier this year, 60 Haitians died at sea after their boat sank in the shark-infested waters just off Providenciales. British investigators who probed the deaths said last month they could not substantiate allegations by several survivors that a Turks and Caicos patrol boat rammed their wooden sloop at least twice before trying to tow it away from the islands. The boat flipped and spilled its human cargo.

So far this year, Turks and Caicos authorities have detained and repatriated 1,539 undocumented Haitian migrants at a cost of $926,083.

Arrangement are currently being made to repatriate the remaining migrants back to Haiti within the next 48 hours, Turks and Caicos officials said.