MIAMI, United States. – This Monday, 35 Cuban migrants were taken into the custody of the United States Border Patrol, after crossing the Straits of Florida in two rustic boats and making landfall in the Marquesas Keys, several uninhabited islands west of Key West, reported on Twitter Agent Walter N. Slosar.
According to that source, the rafters had been stranded on those islands and were rescued by the Coast Guard and the Border Control Agency (CBP).
Every week, dozens of rafters from the Island approach the coast of Florida, where they are generally intercepted by Coast Guard agents and then deported to their country. However, many of them perish in the sea before reaching land.
Last Saturday, US authorities recovered the bodies of three women, presumably Cuban, in the Florida Keys.
“The Sheriff’s Office recovered the bodies of three deceased women from the mangroves near the Naval Air Station in Key West, at approximately 3:30 p.m. on Saturday,” said that authority in a statement. release.
On September 28, the United States Border Patrol reported about the disappearance of 23 Cuban rafters who were shipwrecked in the vicinity of the Florida Keys during the passage of Hurricane Ian.
After the discovery of the new bodies this Saturday, the United States Coast Guard suspended the search for the rest of the Cuban shipwrecks.
“Illegal migration in rustic and improvised boats without safety equipment, such as a life jacket, is dangerous,” has warned Petty Officer 1st Class Nicole J. Groll, Coast Guard 7th District. “Risking their lives during these adventures causes their loved ones unnecessary anxiety about whether they are safe or lost at sea,” she added.
Recently, the United States embassy in Havana warned Cuban rafters that it would strengthen surveillance in the Straits of Florida, with a view to dealing with the increase in irregular maritime migration.
The diplomatic legation on the Island published on its social network account Twitter several tweets accompanied by a statement, in which he assures that the migratory crisis has become a concern of National Security.
“The Joint Homeland Security Task Force increased its operational posture to address a recent increase in irregular maritime migration. Agencies are increasing patrols and law enforcement by land, air and sea, day and night,” reads one of the Embassy publications.
The migration agreements between Cuba and the United States establish that people who are intercepted on the high seas will be returned to the island.
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. have intercepted 6,032 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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