At least 14 Haitian migrants drowned off the coast of the Bahamas

As many as 25 or 27 people were said to be on board the migrant vessel when it sank late on Saturday. Fishermen were the first to come upon the scene, notifying authorities of the catastrophe after hearing the screams of people adrift in the water early Sunday morning. The Haitian survivors, a man a woman, are currently being treated for complications from prolonged exposure to the water, having been transferred to a hospital from the detention center at which they were being held.

This weekends tragedy is the kind that has become all too familiar. In May 2007, at least 61 Haitians were killed when a boat overturned in the area of the Turks and Caicos islands. Survivors of that incident said their sailboat, loaded with 160 people, was rammed by a patrol boat as they approached Providenciales, a northwestern island in the Caicos chain. Their migrant vessel capsized, they said, as patrol boats then attempted to tow them away.

Conditions in Haiti, the poorest country in the western hemisphere, have forced thousands to flee on such dangerous journeys, as many as 10,000 attempting to make it to the United States from 2003-2007