NAGUA, Dominican Republic -- Migrants who survived on a smallwooden boat for nearly two weeks described on Wednesday how theywatched passengers attack a woman for her breast milk and how othersdied from dehydration on a journey that left 55 dead.
Some on the trip simply began to lose their minds after food andwater ran out, a survivor said.
"A lot of people just jumped off," said Faustina Santana, one of39 migrants who survived the journey. Eight of the 55 victims diedshortly after their rescue.
The migrants' 30-foot boat was found by fishermen on Tuesday onlyabout 30 miles from where it departed the village of El Limon on July29. The Dominican Republic migrants had set out for wealthier PuertoRico in search of work or a better life.
Doctors were treating the 31 survivors Wednesday.
The boat had almost reached the Puerto Rican island of Desecheotwo days after it left the northern coast of the Dominican Republicwhen its engine failed. The captain abandoned ship and neverreturned.
Passengers had paid about $450 each for the trip.
By the third day, all water and food had run out. They shared acoconut they found on the water.
Many people -- mostly older men -- began dying on the fifth day,the same day some of the men began demanding that women, even thosewho were not lactating, provide breast milk.
Two lactating women offered their breast milk to passengers. Onewho refused was thrown overboard by male passengers, Santana said,although some survivors said the woman was pushed overboard after shedied.
The survivors interviewed by the Associated Press said there wereno children aboard the boat.
There's been a huge influx of Dominican Republic migrants toPuerto Rico in the past year as inflation in their Caribbean homelandhas topped 30 percent, unemployment has reached 16 percent andblackouts plague the nation.
AP
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