DOZENS MISSING AFTER HAITIAN BOAT SINKS

HAITIAN MIGRANT SHIPWRECK
KILLS 15, DOZENS MISSING

MIAMI, July 28 (Reuters) - At least 15 Haitian migrants drowned and more than 65 were missing after their wooden sail boat hit a reef and sank off the Turks and Caicos islands, local police and the U.S. Coast Guard said on Tuesday. More than 120 people were rescued following the shipwreck late on Sunday, and Coast Guard cutters and aircraft were assisting Turks and Caicos authorities in the search for more survivors. Police in the British territory said 15 bodies had been recovered in waters off West Caicos, a sparsely inhabited island popular with divers and boaters.

They are illegal immigrants, who are escaping from poverty. These Haitian migrants often leave their impoverished Caribbean country in dangerously crowded boats, hoping to escape poverty and find work in the Bahamas or Florida. The Turks and Caicos islands are a British territory in the Atlantic Ocean, between the southern Bahamas and the north coast of Haiti. Last week, the Coast Guard intercepted 124 Haitian migrants from what they called a "grossly overloaded" 60-foot (18-metre) boat about 150 miles (240 km) southwest of the shipwreck site. They were repatriated to Haiti on Monday.

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US?

Back to Godhead means one must be completely pure. A slight impurity will not allow. Kingdom of God is so, that no impure person can enter. Just like in your country. You belong to USA.? There are... In every country, there are so many. Especially in your country, there are so many immigrants, immigration authorities to check whether contamination... Even they do not allow plants to be carried. Is it not? From one port to another. Why? Checking the contamination. So if in this material world such strict checkings are there, don't you think that one who enters, one who wants to enter the kingdom of God, there is no checking? Anyone will be able to enter? It is a commonsense affair. So kingdom of God means purity. So if there is slight impurity, he will not be allowed: "Keep aside." And it is stated in the Bhagavad-gita, yesam anta-gatam papam (BG 7. 28)."

Srila A.C. BV Swami Prabhupada:
"Lecture on the Srimad-Bhagavatam, Canto 6, Chapter 1, Verses 34-39"
Lecture given in Surat, on December 19, 1970