PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AFP)— At least 40 migrants have died after a boat they were travelling in caught fire off the northern coast of Haiti, a UN agency said Friday, with police saying the explosion was sparked by a voodoo ritual gone wrong.

The UN’s International Organization for Migration (IOM) reported that the Haitian Coast Guard rescued 41 survivors, 11 of whom were hospitalised, including some for burns.

But “at least 40 migrants have died, and several others were injured,” the IOM said.

The fire began when a passenger lit a candle to start a voodoo ritual, police spokesperson Arold Jean said.

Survivors told local media that the voodoo ceremony was meant to bring luck and help the boat avoid being intercepted by the coast guard.

“This devastating event highlights the risks faced by children, women and men migrating through irregular routes,” said Gregoire Goodstein, IOM’s chief of mission in the country.

The boat, carrying more than 80 people, had left the port of Labadee on Wednesday en route to the Turks and Caicos Islands, a 150-mile (240-kilometre) journey, the IOM reported, citing Haiti’s National Office for Migration.

“The search continues with the aim of finding other survivors,” said Jean, adding that an investigation had been opened to “identify and dismantle the networks that organise these clandestine voyages.”

Migration from the poorest country in the Americas has been surging for months, as thousands of people flee a spike in violence from criminal gangs that now control wide swaths of territory.

The gangs have attacked prisons, destroyed dozens of police stations, and invaded the main airport, with the government’s hold over the country tenuous.

“Haiti’s socioeconomic situation is in agony,” Goodstein said. “The extreme violence over the past months has only brought Haitians to resort to desperate measures even more.”

Hundreds of police officers from Kenya have been deployed in Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince, part of an international effort to bring stability to a country riven by political, social and economic chaos.

Newly named Prime Minister Gary Conille, a former UN official, has welcomed the Kenyan contingent and vowed to launch a police operation against the gangs.

Criminal groups control 80 per cent of the capital city, with residents saying they have faced the threat of murder, rape and kidnapping for ransom.

As the pace of emigration grows, Haitian Coast Guard units in the north have observed an increasing number of departures by boat, the IOM said.

Countries including the United States, the Bahamas, the Turks and Caicos Islands, and Jamaica say they have intercepted a growing number of boats originating from Haiti.

More than 86,000 migrants have been forcibly returned to Haiti by neighbouring countries this year, according to the IOM.

The country currently has nearly 600,000 internally displaced people, according to UN figures, a 60 per cent increase since March.