Four people found dead following apparent shipwreck off Aruba
ORANJESTAD, Netherlands, (AFP) — Authorities on the Caribbean island of Aruba have recovered four bodies, possibly migrants who died when a vessel overturned at sea, a police spokesman said on Tuesday.
Local press reports said the vessel arrived from Venezuela, 15 miles south of Aruba.
“There are four” bodies that have been retrieved, said Lito Lacle, a police spokesman.
The coast guard said Monday that two people arrived in Vader Piet in the north of the island in a small launch, telling authorities that “their boat carrying a group of undocumented migrants flipped over at sea,” a statement said, adding that an investigation was under way.
Authorities found three bodies immediately, and on Tuesday morning half of another body.
In recent months, several vessels with migrants have arrived in Aruba.
The United Nations estimates that 17,000 Venezuelans live on Aruba. They are among the seven million people who have left Venezuela in recent years, fleeing an acute economic and political crisis.