MIAMI, United States. – The cruise ship The Virgin Voyages Scarlet Lady rescued eight Cuban rafters who were drifting between the western end of the Island and Cozumel, Mexico, on September 14, revealed the Instagram account “lifestyle_miami”.
That profile, dedicated to news and daily life in Miami, shared the story of one of the people on board the cruise ship, as well as a video of the rafters drifting before being rescued.
“Our ship rescued eight Cubans who were trying to escape their country in this small makeshift raft built with barrels of water and inner tubes, with a blue plastic tarp or similar sheet as a sail,” details the story published by “lifestyle_miami” .
“My partner and I were among the first to see them greet us. If you look closer, there is a young woman, possibly in her 20s, lying on the ground, and a man next to her holding a homemade IV bottle. She was injured and was wearing a cast.”
“Who knows how many days they were adrift. Less than three hours later, the US Coast Guard took them away,” the same source said.
“Unfortunately, we have no idea what happened after they left, but they received food and treatment and will be released without any punishment,” the story ends.
At the time it rescued the eight Cuban rafters, The Virgin Voyages Scarlet Lady was heading to Bimini, between Cozumel and Cuba.
Every week, dozens of Cuban rafters They approach the coast of Florida, where they are generally intercepted by Coast Guard agents and then deported to the Island. However, many of them have perished at sea before reaching land.
This Friday, several Cubans who were trying to reach the shores of the United States jumped into the water when Coast Guard and Border Control agents approached their boat, near Marathon Cay, to arrest them, according to reported on Twitter the Coast Guard itself.
Earlier, another group of 26 Cuban rafters was rescued by the Coast Guard and taken into Border Patrol custody, according to reported on Twitter Agent Walter N. Slosar.
That same Friday, the Paul Clark coast guard ship repatriated 28 Cubans rescued in two different operations off the coast of Florida, according to reported on Twitter the Coast Guard.
Cuba is experiencing a massive exodus that has surpassed the Mariel crisis and the rafters’ crisis of 1994. Since October 1, 2021, the beginning of the current fiscal year, only the crews of the US Coast Guard travel by sea. They have intercepted 5,689 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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