SCARBOROUGH, Trinidad and Tobago: A baby died in her mother’s arms after the Trinidad and Tobago coast guard fired on a boat carrying migrants from Venezuela, authorities said on Sunday (Feb 6).
The Caribbean nation’s coast guard ship TTS Scarborough attempted to intercept a boat that illegally entered the country’s territorial waters from Venezuela on Saturday a little before midnight, a coast guard statement said.
The ship hailed the other vessel to make it stop and fired warning shots when it did not, the statement said, adding, “This measure also proved futile”.
The unknown vessel “continued with aggressive manoeuvres, first coming into contact with the ship’s boat and then making attempts to ram it”.
The statement said that coast guard personnel feared for their lives and fired on the engines of the boat to shut them down.
When the boat did stop illegal migrants were discovered on board, the statement said, adding a woman onboard holding a baby said she was bleeding.
“The injured female was subsequently stabilised” and taken to hospital, the statement added.
“Regrettably, the infant was found to be unresponsive,” it said, extending “condolences” to the child’s family.
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