Dear Friends:
    This sounds like a nightmare.

Dominican Migrants Describe Deadly Sea Voyage
Survivors Tell Horrific Tale of Nearly Two-Week Journey That Left 55 Dead
By PETER PRENGAMAN, AP
NAGUA, Dominican Republic (Aug. 12) -- After a harrowing journey at sea that
lasted nearly two weeks and killed at least 55 people, a group of Dominican
migrants who were seeking a better life in Puerto Rico drifted back to almost
the same spot where their voyage began.
Relatives began burying the withered corpses of loved ones Wednesday after 39
survivors were found here Tuesday, less than 30 miles from the village of El
Limon, where their boat left July 29. Eight of the survivors died after being
rescued and hospitalized.
Survivors described horrific scenes.
One woman was thrown overboard by men after she refused to give breast milk.
Others jumped to their deaths after rations ran dry. Some considered turning
to cannibalism.
''People just jumped off,'' said survivor Faustina Santana, 27. ''They were
going crazy.''
The 30-foot boat crammed with 86 people had almost reached the Puerto Rican
island of Desecheo two days after it left the Dominican Republic when its
engine failed.
It was then that the captain abandoned ship, getting on a passing migrant
boat and saying he would return with help. He never returned. The migrants paid
$450 for the trip.
''We couldn't make it with what my husband earned so we had to try
something,'' said Odales de Jesus, 29, a survivor who left her family in search of work.
By the third day, the boat was drifting and all of the water and food -
chocolate, peanuts and sardines - had run out. The passengers shared one coconut
they found floating in the sea.
Many people - mostly older men - began dying on the fifth day, the same day
some men began demanding that women, even those who were not lactating, provide
breast milk.
Vernanva de La Cruz, 19, was a recent mother who offered her breast milk.
Another woman also provided milk but she died. It was unclear how or when she
died.
''People started biting her everywhere to get at her nipples,'' de La Cruz
said from her hospital bed. ''She had bruises everywhere when she died.''
Another woman who refused to provide milk was thrown overboard, Santana said,
though some said the woman was pushed overboard after she was already dead.
She ''refused to give breast milk and the men aboard grabbed her from behind
and threw her overboard,'' Santana said. ''They told me to give milk and I
said I couldn't.''
''Some wanted to eat the dead bodies, just their ears, but others of us said
'no,' and if we're going to die, we'll all die together,'' said Ramon Ballano,
40.
Worried relatives notified authorities when they did not hear from their
loved ones in the days after they left. The journey to Puerto Rico can take a day
in good weather.

Nikki Lee RN, MS, Mother of 2, IBCLC, CCE, CIMI
Maternal-Child Adjunct Faculty Union Institute and University
Film Reviews Editor, Journal of Human Lactation
Support the WHO Code and the Mother-Friendly Childbirth Initiative

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