MIAMI, United States. – The crew of the Issac Mayo boat repatriated 36 Cuban rafters last Tuesday and transferred four other Cuban nationals to the Department of Homeland Security Investigations for “further interrogation,” according to a statement from the Coast Guard.
The 36 Cuban immigrants returned to the Island were intercepted in several rescue operations carried out from Friday, August 5 to Monday, August 8.
“This year our forces have significantly increased patrolling with the intent of finding people in distress and rescuing migrants from dangerous and extremely overloaded vessels,” said Coast Guard District Seven Chief Enforcement Capt. Robert Kinsey.
Every week, dozens of Cuban rafters They approach the coast of Florida, where they are generally intercepted by United States Coast Guard agents 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.
Since October 1, 2021, the start of the current fiscal year, US Coast Guard crews have intercepted 3,963 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.
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