Coast Guard takes 86 migrants back to Cuba. They were stopped off the Florida Keys
The Coast Guard returned 86 people back to Cuba Friday aboard a cutter. They had been stopped at sea in separate migrant incidents off the Florida Keys throughout the week.
The Coast Guard said in a statement that the seven stops happened Saturday to Wednesday. The service urged people from Cuba not to make the dangerous journey across the Florida Straits, and also for families in the U.S. to tell loved ones on the island not to take to the seas.
“Illegally crossing the unpredictable Florida Straits in rustic, makeshift vessels is very dangerous and can result in loss of life,” said Lt. Cmdr. Mark Cobb, a Coast Guard District Seven enforcement officer.
The Coast Guard released several photos of the makeshift boats the people used to sail to South Florida, including one that was barely bigger than a wooden grocery pallet.
South Florida is in the midst of a maritime migrant surge from Cuba and Haiti since October.
The Coast Guard said Friday that its crews have stopped 1,779 people between Cuba and South Florida since Oct. 1, the beginning of the fiscal year. That’s the busiest the agency has been since fiscal year 2016, when 5,396 people from Cuba were stopped at sea.
Haitian maritime migration is at a high not seen since 2004, with about 4,500 people having been intercepted on the ocean so far this fiscal year.
One of those journeys turned tragic Thursday when an overloaded boat carrying mostly people from Haiti and some from the Dominican Republic capsized near an uninhabited island off Puerto Rico’s western coast in the Mona Passage separating Puerto Rico and Hispaniola.
At least 11 people died, according to the Coast Guard.
On Friday, Rear Adm. Brendan C. McPherson, commander of Coast Guard District 7, said the search continues for more survivors.
“Our hope and prayers are with the survivors and those still missing,” McPherson said in a statement. “Our highest priority is saving lives, and that is what my crews will exhaust themselves doing.”
He said that the Coast Guard is being joined in the search by Puerto Rican authorities and crews from U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Air and Marine Operations.
“The sea is dangerous,” McPherson said. “These ventures are dangerous.”
