Five Stowaways Escape Cargo Box, Jump Ship

Five Haitian stowaways escaped from a dungeon-like cargo box aboard a freighter and disappeared after five days of shuttling between the United States and the Bahamas because neither country would accept them, officials said today.

The five men stowed away Monday on the coastal freighter Alco Trader, first hidden in a cement mixer, then locked in a cabin and later in the metal cargo box.

U.S. and Bahamian officials ruled that the Haitians were illegal aliens and neither country would let them off the ship, which shuttles goods between Freeport, Grand Bahama, and Port Everglades, Fla.

George Waldroup, deputy district director for the Immigration and Naturalization Service, said the men sneaked out of the cargo box at about 11:30 p.m. Thursday.

“The owners of the freighter are responsible for all security,” Waldroup said. “They had two guards on them. One of the guards walked away. The door was slightly ajar, they claim, and the five took right off.”

Waldroup said the freighter’s owners will be fined $10,000 “because of the weakness of their security. We’re also going to have investigators look into the matter to see if it was deliberate.”