A BABY died in her mother’s arms after coast guards fired on a boat carrying migrants from Venezuela in Trinidad and Tobago, said authorities yesterday.

The Caribbean nation’s coast guard ship TTS Scarborough attempted to intercept a boat that illegally entered the country’s territorial waters before midnight on Saturday, said a statement.

The ship hailed the boat to make it stop and fired warning shots when it did not, the statement said, adding that “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 coast guard personnel feared for their lives and fired on the engines of the boat to shut them down.

When the boat stopped, illegal migrants were discovered on board, it added, with a woman holding a baby on board saying she was bleeding.

“The injured female was subsequently stabilised” and taken to hospital, said the statement.

“Regrettably, the infant was found to be unresponsive,” it added, extending “condolences” to the child’s family.

The boat carrying the migrants departed from the Delta Amacuro, where an estimated six to 10 boats carrying migrants leave daily, on Saturday, said human rights activist Orlando Moreno.

“We could see this coming as they (the coast guards) shoot on boats’ engines to stop them. In this case the protocol got out of hand,” added Moreno, who has been in contact with relatives of the deceased child.

More than 100 people have lost their lives in sinkings in the area between Trinidad and Tobago and Venezuela – only about 100km apart – since 2018.

The route is heavily trafficked by people smugglers transporting migrants trying to escape crisis-hit Venezuela.

Boats are often overloaded and accidents, common.

According to the United Nations, some five million Venezuelans have fled the country of 30 million since 2015, with 25,000 choosing to go to Trinidad and Tobago, a country of 1.3 million, which said it has recorded the arrival of 16,000 Venezuelans. – AFP, February 7, 2022.