Carnival crew members rescue 16 ‘in distress’ from a raft off the coast of Cuba
Carnival Cruise Line said on Friday that crew members from one of its ships rescued 16 people from what appears to be a migrant boat near Cuba.
The crew members aboard Carnival’s Mardi Gras said they spotted people “in distress” on the makeshift raft before 8 a.m.. and stopped to bring them to safety aboard the ship.
Carnival’s statement said that the 16 people were “stranded in the rough, open sea near Cuba.” Carnival did not specify the nationality of the people in the vessel.
The Mardi Gras is on its last day of a seven-day cruise. The ship was returning from Roatan, Honduras, when it passed near Cuba on its way back to Florida. The Mardi Gras will arrive at its home port of Port Canaveral on Saturday morning.
Carnival Cruise Line said it had alerted the U.S. Coast Guard and “all other appropriate authorities” about the rescue effort.
This week alone, U.S. authorities in Florida have intercepted several trips of Cuban migrants. Two separate groups of Cubans people, totaling 28 balseros, landed Sunday in the Florida Keys, a hot spot for landings in the state. On Monday and Tuesday, two other boats filled with Cuban migrants were detained near the chain of islands.
Since October, the Coast Guard has intercepted 2,146 Cuban migrants at sea, up from 838 in all of fiscal year 2021, according to the most recently available data provided from the agency. As more migrants undertake dangerous ocean voyages to reach the United States, authorities warn that all illegal trips have the potential to turn deadly and encourage people to not join them. The voyages are often carried out on small makeshift boats that have a rickety build with no safety mechanisms and face changing ocean conditions, dangerous marine life, and unreliable engines.
