Coast Guard returns 29 migrants to Cuba after spotting vessels off the Florida Keys
The U.S. Coast Guard returned 29 people to Cuba on Monday after stopping migrants at sea off the Florida Keys in four instances last week.
In one stop off Key West, the agency reported two men were on a makeshift vessel made of foam. In another, two people were detained after being suspected of human smuggling.
The four instances took place between Aug. 2 and Friday. In each case, the Coast Guard said it was notified of a vessel by a good Samaritan. The agency reported the stops Tuesday in a press release:
▪ On Aug. 2 the Coast Guard stopped a vessel with 20 people aboard near Cuban waters. The Coast Guard determined that one person had a credible fear of returning to Cuba. That person was transferred to other authorities.
▪ On Aug. 3, the Coast Guard picked up five people 11 miles off Key Largo.
▪ On Aug. 4, two men on a 10-foot makeshift boat made from Styrofoam were stopped after being spotted two miles off Key West.
▪ On Friday, five people were stopped aboard a vessel near Cuban waters. Two were suspected of human smuggling, taken to the U.S. Border Patrol for processing and referred to Homeland Security for a follow-up investigation. Three people were taken back to Cuba.
“Taking to the seas in a less than seaworthy vessel is dangerous and can result in loss of life,” said Lt. Cmdr. Mario Gil, the Coast Guard liaison officer at the U.S. Embassy in Havana.
The federal government tracks migrants by fiscal year, which runs from October to October and the numbers show a spike in migration this year.
Since Oct, 1, 2020, Coast Guard crews have stopped 648 Cubans, more than the previous three years combined. In 2020, the Coast Guard stopped 49. The number was 313 in 2019 and 259 in 2018.
The numbers of Cubans making the dangerous journey across the Florida Straits fell significantly after the ending of the so-called “wet-foot, dry-foot”” policy by the Obama administration in early 2017.
Before that decision, immigration authorities in South Florida were dealing with multiple landings or attempted landings per week. In 2016, the number of migrants stopped was 5,396.
In fiscal year 2017, the total had dropped to 1,468 people.
Two recent migration attempts ended in tragedy.
In July, nine people went missing in the ocean off the Keys after a boat with 22 people capsized as it crossed the Florida Straits. The group had left Cuba for South Florida as the region was preparing for Tropical Storm Elsa.
At the end of May, two people died and 10 others went missing and are now presumed dead after their boat sank while sailing from Cuba to South Florida. Eight others in the party were rescued by the Coast Guard.
%20Cropped%20(1).jpg)