The Turks and Caicos says it has intercepted another overloaded boat from Haiti, this time carrying more than 100 Haitian migrants.

The group included 87 men and 23 women.

Shortly after the 110 migrants were interdicted at sea on Wednesday by the Royal Turks and Caicos Islands Police Force and Turks and Caicos Islands Regiment and Border Force, they were loaded on two police marine vessels for processing.

One of those vessels, however, the newly commissioned Sea Protector 2, suffered an explosion while being refueled at Turtle Tail Marina. The incident occurred at 2:29 p.m., police said.

Preliminary information indicates that the explosion occurred near the vessel’s stern deck, resulting in limited damage, a police spokesperson said in a statement. No injuries have been reported, and the incident remains under investigation.

This is the second migrant boat in Turks water in 15 days and the third since Sept. 8, when 93 individuals attempted to enter the island chain. The latest interdiction brings to 1,545 the number of Haitians who have taken to the high sea in the direction of the chain. The surge comes as armed gangs continue to wreak havoc in the French-speaking nation, where more than half of its 12 million people are facing hunger, and nearly 1.5 million have been internally displaced by gangs.

While addressing the situation in Haiti, U.N. Human Rights Chief Volker Türk said last week that his office has documented at least 5,700 people killed or injured by armed gangs or during operations against them between Jan. 1 and Sept. 11 this year. Gangs have also kidnapped more than 230 people and raped over 1,000 women and girls during that time period.

“The real figures are likely much higher,” he said.

Türk noted that nearly $5 billion dollars in remittances flowed into Haiti last year — around one sixth of its gross domestic product. But ongoing deportations from the United States threaten to bring these transfers, which are a lifeline for the country’s economy and its people, to a halt.

“In 2026, more than 220,000 people, including nearly 20,000 children, have been forcibly returned to Haiti from several countries in the region,” said Türk. “Many of these people fled for their lives or those of their families. Sending them back puts those lives at risk once again.”

Migration and drug trafficking link

A British overseas territory, the Turks and Caicos was cited in a United Nations report examining Haiti’s security crisis, and the scale of trafficking operations through Haiti. The report was released on Tuesday and is the latest from a U.N. Panel of Experts tasked with making recommendations for international sanctions. The panel noted that along with being a popular route for human smuggling, northern Haiti continues to feature in regional drug trafficking routes.

During their investigation they found that there had been a record number of cocaine and cannabis seizures, and some of it had links to the Turks and Caicos, whose authorities have yet to respond to the panel’s request for additional information.

One incident involved an April 30 seizure by the U.S. Coast Guard after it stopped a vessel off Môle Saint-Nicolas, in northwest Haiti. The operation led to the seizure of 1,376 kilograms of cannabis, valued at approximately $3.8 million, and the arrest of a Jamaican national, according to the panel. The contraband and suspected smuggler were transferred to Haitian authorities on May 3.

The Jamaican national claimed he was a fisherman and had been contacted by another Jamaican national to arrange a trip from Jamaica to Providenciales in the Turks and Caicos, and said he was the owner of the drugs, according to the U.N. report.

“He admitted that there had been four individuals aboard the vessel; however, they managed to dive into the sea and escape from the Coast Guard,” the panel said.

In August 2024, authorities in the Turks and Caicos Islands intercepted several vessels carrying undocumented migrants from Haiti’s northern coast. The operation also led to the seizure of more than $2 million worth of cannabis, according to the panel.

“The operations reveal a pattern in which illicit drug trafficking is conducted alongside irregular migration flows along the Haiti-Turks and Caicos Islands route,” the panel said.

The panel said it had sent an official communication to the Turks and Caicos authorities, through the United Kingdom, but had not received a response.

Tragedy near Puerto Rico

The interception from Haiti comes just over a week after an overloaded boat capsized off a small islet between Hispaniola, the island Haiti shares with the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico with 62 people on board. The U.S. Coast Guard and the crew of a civilian boat crew saved 49 people in a series of dramatic operations involving rescue swimmers picking up survivors from rough waters. But the Coast Guard also found three bodies, and the search for 10 people who remained missing was eventually called off.

The majority of the people who survived are from the Dominican Republic, but two people are from Haiti, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said.

On Monday, the U.S. Coast Guard rescued 61 people from a crowded migrant boat that was rapidly taking on water about 12 nautical miles off Cabo Cabron on the northern coast of the Dominican Republic.

The Coast Guard turned the people over to crews of two Dominican Republic Navy patrol boats. Their nationalities have not yet been released. All individuals are being processed in accordance with established immigration procedures.

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