DOZENS OF PEOPLE MISSING AFTER BOAT CAPSIZES OFF FLORIDA: U.S. COAST GUARD

MIAMI — The U.S. Coast Guard has launched a search for 39 people reported missing when a boat capsized off the coast of Florida in a “suspected human smuggling venture.”

The Coast Guard in Miami said Tuesday it received a report “from a good Samaritan” who rescued a man “clinging to a capsized vessel approximately 45 miles east of Fort Pierce Inlet.”

The survivor said the boat left Bimini in the Bahamas on Saturday night, and had encountered rough weather before it capsized.

“According to the survivor, no one was wearing a life jacket,” the statement said.

“Coast Guard air and surface asset crews are actively searching for people in the water. This is a suspected human smuggling venture,” said the statement posted on Twitter.

It added later that air and surface crews would “continue to search throughout the night” for the missing people.

An image released by the Coast Guard showed the capsized vessel in the water with a man straddling the hull.

The survivor was taken to a hospital to be treated for dehydration and sun exposure, the Coast Guard said.

Human smugglers are known to use the Bahamas — a group of islands near the Florida coast — as a jumping-off point for transporting people, many from other Caribbean countries such as Haiti, to the United States.

According to the International Organization for Migration, around 5,000 Haitian migrants work legally in the Bahamas, but 20,000 to 50,000 of their compatriots are in the country illegally.