MIAMI, United States. – Some 4,361 irregular Cuban migrants have been returned to the island so far in 2022, the Cuban Ministry of the Interior (MININT) indicated this Friday in a note quoted by the Cuban News Agency (ACN).
The more than 4,000 Cuban migrants have been repatriated mainly from Mexico and the United States, in 99 air and sea operations.
Just last Friday, 49 Cuban citizens who had legally left the country arrived on the island, according to the MININT, and had joined “the irregular flow of migrants seeking to reach the United States.”
Specifically, 1,459 Cuban citizens have been returned from Mexico so far this year.
Also last Friday, the U.S. Coast Guard returned 47 irregular migrants to the Island as part of operation number 55 of the year, with which a total of 2,640 Cuban citizens returned through this route, according to the Island authorities.
According to the MININT note, people who are returned to Cuba receive health care corresponding to established international protocols and travel to their places of residence.
Every week, dozens of Cuban rafters approach the coast of Florida, where they are generally intercepted by agents of the United States Coast Guard and then deported to the Island.
“The possibility of being apprehended by Coast Guard crews while illegally migrating through the Straits of Florida is extremely high,” said Lieutenant Commander Mark Cobb of the 7th Coast Guard District. “No one should risk their lives on unsafe rustic boats in unpredictable seas,” he added.
Last Tuesday, the crew of the Coast Guard cutter Charles Sexton repatriated 41 Cubans, after several rescue operations in the vicinity of the Florida Keys, according to reported the Coast Guard.
Last week, the Coast Guard also repatriated 77 Cuban raftersincluding three who would have crossed the Straits of Florida on a water bike, according to published images by that US agency.
The 77 Cubans had been intercepted in various operations near the Florida Keys, from last Saturday, July 9, until this Monday, according to a statement of the Coast Guard.
The number of Cuban migrants intercepted by US authorities so far this fiscal year – last nine months – already exceeds 3,500.
Since October 1, 2021, US Coast Guard crews have intercepted 3,516 Cubans, a figure that exceeds the number of migrants from the island intercepted each fiscal year from 2017 to 2021.
According to the agency, the statistics have behaved as follows: 5,396 Cubans intercepted in fiscal year 2016; 1,468 in 2017; 259 in 2018; 313 in 2019; 49 in 2020 and 838 in 2021.
“Once aboard a Coast Guard patrol boat, all migrants receive food, water, shelter and basic medical attention,” the Coast Guard has indicated on other occasions.
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