The boat was carrying an estimated 200 people _ men, women and teenagers _ when it struck a coral reef and broke apart in rough seas near West Caicos, part of an archipelago that has proven to be deadly for Haitians in rickety vessels.
Such perilous journeys have long been common throughout the world, but the number of migrants risking their lives to cross borders has declined amid increased enforcement in the United States and Europe and due to a global recession that has eliminated many unskilled jobs.
But people continue to set out in search of better lives, including the Haitians who crowded into a sailboat last week in northern Haiti.
Officials from the United States and the Turks and Caicos said 15 died and more than 100 were rescued, including some who were clinging for their lives to the jagged reefs or who swam two miles to shore.
Dozens more were missing, as Coast Guard boats, airplanes and a helicopter joined local authorities and volunteers in searching a 1,600-square-mile area, U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer 1st Class Jennifer Johnson said. Any survivors in the water would be struggling with 23 mph winds and 6-foot seas.
"We hope that there are survivors and we can get them medical attention," Johnson said. "However, as time goes by, it becomes less and less likely because of exposure and fatigue."
The Haitians had been at sea for three days when they spotted a police vessel and tried to hide, accidentally steering the boat onto a reef, survivor Alces Julien told The Associated Press.
"We saw police boats and we tried to hide until they passed," he said at a hospital where survivors were treated for dehydration. "We hit a reef and the boat broke up."
But Deputy Police Commissioner Hubert Hughes said officers were not pursuing the migrant vessel _ which did not have a motor _ and were involved only as rescuers.
"They were traveling in waters that are quite dangerous if you don't know the area quite well," he said.
Turks and Caicos is a magnet for divers who come to explore its clear, shallow waters and reefs _ conditions that also make it treacherous for boaters unfamiliar with the jagged outcroppings of coral that lie menacingly just below the surface in some places.
The wooden sailboat apparently fell into just such a trap, failing to navigate a narrow passage, Minister of Public Safety Samuel Been said after speaking with 10 of the migrants in a gymnasium serving as a makeshift detention center.
"The waves broke the boat apart," Been said. "It was frightening."
Rescuers found survivors stranded on two reefs roughly two miles from West Caicos Island, said Lt. Cmdr. Matt Moorlag, a Coast Guard spokesman. Most were ferried to land by Turks and Caicos authorities in small boats.
Five survivors were found on West Caicos after apparently swimming ashore, Hughes said.
Been said one Haitian man dove off a rescue boat and tried to escape, but was caught.
"It wasn't hard to get him; he was already tired," he said.
Johnson said the boat sank Monday afternoon, but Hughes said it might have been Sunday night. Turks and Caicos authorities reported the capsizing Monday to the Coast Guard, which patrols the region for drug traffickers and illegal migrants and often helps in search and rescue efforts.
Survivors told authorities the boat set out from northern Haiti with about 160 passengers, then stopped at an unknown location and picked up 40 others before sinking near the Turks and Caicos, an island chain between Haiti and the Bahamas, Johnson said. She said overloading appeared to be a factor.
"These vessels, they are grossly overloaded," she said. "Two hundred people on a sailboat is astronomical."
Nearly 60 survivors were surrounded by private security guards at the two-story gymnasium, a beige, concrete structure near the island's small airport.
"The people are being taken care of," said Donald Mettlus, an official from the Haitian Embassy who visited them. "They can walk. They are in good health."
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