Haiti mourns 11 women from fatal voyage near Puerto Rico

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — The caskets were rolled in one by one, lined up in front of friends and family who had no idea that many of the 11 Haitian girls and women they were preparing to bury had decided to flee their country.

They were teenagers, mothers, students, university graduates, all aboard a grossly overloaded boat that capsized last month in the open waters northwest of Puerto Rico.

It was one of the deadliest voyages in the region in recent months.

The boat was carrying an estimated 60 to 75 migrants, of which 11 were found dead, at least a dozen are still missing and 38 were rescued — 36 of them Haitians fleeing a deeply unstable country fighting a surge in poverty and violence.

Mourners held aloft their phones at the church and rainy cemetery Wednesday as they live streamed the Mass and burials on social media.

They zoomed in on certain caskets for families back in Haiti who couldn't afford to fly to Puerto Rico and for Haitian migrants living illegally on the US mainland who feared being arrested if they travelled but longed to say goodbye to the victims, including two girls, ages 15 and 16.

“Today we bury their remains, but not their lives and hope,” said one of five priests officiating the ceremony as one man attending the service closed his eyes tightly before tears began to form.

That man, Pierrot Samedi, lost his 23-year-old sister as well as six cousins on the voyage who were never found. He flew to Puerto Rico from West Palm Beach at the urging of local Haitian leader Leonard Prophil, who helped identify the bodies and who has housed and fed all those who arrived for the funeral.

“If you've never lived in Haiti, you don't know what hardship is, you don't know what misery is,” Prophil said.

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