(EFE).-After 48 hours of air and sea tracking, the United States Coast Guard (USCG) suspended this Wednesday the search for the nine Cubans who were shipwrecked last weekend off the southeast coast of Florida, while trying to locate two others missing in the waters of the southern Keys of the state.
“USCG suspends the search for the nine people missing in Lake Worth Beach pending new information. The teams registered 2,485 miles (3,999 km). Our condolences to the loved ones of those lost at sea,” the federal agency said on Twitter. .
Coast Guard teams had been searching since Monday for the Cubans, who were shipwrecked off Lake Worth, located about 100 kilometers north of Miami.
The US agency reported that the search began after one of its boats rescued a Cuban on Sunday, around 3:30 p.m., whose boat capsized in the area, in Palm Beach County.
USCG troops are searching this Wednesday for two migrants, presumably Cubans, who disappeared after capsizing their boat with about twenty occupants in the waters of the Florida Keys
The man told members of the Coast Guard that he had left with nine compatriots from the Island on December 10 and that the ship capsized on Sunday morning.
On the other hand, USCG troops are searching this Wednesday for two migrants, presumably Cubans, who disappeared after capsizing their boat with about twenty occupants in the waters of the Florida Keys.
According to data provided by the federal agency, the boat capsized on Tuesday about 40 miles (64 km) south of Boot Key.
The USCG rescued 19 people from the water after the capsize, four of whom were transferred to federal emergency medical services (EMS).
The reports obtained by the Coast Guard show that 21 people were traveling on the boat, presumably of Cuban nationality, according to the Local 10 channel.
Boot Key is an island located in the central part of the Florida Keys and is within the limits of the town of Marathon.
The search for the migrants occurs at a time when the arrival of Cubans on the Florida coast has skyrocketed, journeys that sometimes end in tragedy.
A total of 165 migrants of this nationality were detained last Friday after arriving in the Florida Keys, in the extreme southeast of the United States.
A total of 165 migrants of this nationality were detained last Friday after arriving in the Florida Keys, in the extreme southeast of the United States. A day earlier, 117 Cubans were detained after making landfall west of Key West in multiple boats.
Since October 1, 2022, Coast Guard vessels have intercepted 3,450 Cubans when they tried to reach the southern United States, that is, more than 50% of the total of 6,182 migrants apprehended in the last fiscal year, which ended last 30 of September.
Meanwhile, Republican representative María Elvira Salazar on Wednesday urged the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to stop the deportation of the 46 Cuban asylum seekers whose information was accidentally disclosed to the public.
The request came after DHS inadvertently informed the Cuban government that some of the immigrants it was slated to deport were included on a list of more than 6,000 immigrants who had asked the United States for protection from persecution or torture, and whose information leaked last month.
In a letter dated this Wednesday and addressed to the Secretary of National Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, the congresswoman warns that “the United States cannot continue to be a beacon of freedom if we put those fleeing persecution and violence at risk.”
The leak of the names of 6,252 immigrants occurred on November 28 due to an error by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service (ICE).
The information disclosed includes names, dates of birth, nationalities, and locations. All the immigrants, who claimed to be victims of torture and persecution in their countries of origin, were in ICE custody.
Following the leak, US officials told the Cuban government that it would delay deportations to the island, indirectly confirming to Havana that potential Cuban deportees were seeking to flee persecution or torture.
“The safety and well-being of the refugees fleeing the (Cuban) regime must be the guiding principle of our immigration policy on Cuba,” Salazar said in his letter.
In his application, Salazar called the leak “dangerous to life, and unacceptable,” and urged Mayorkas to take “the necessary steps to protect these people and reconsider their asylum claims.”
The Republican stressed that the United States had no way of guaranteeing the safety of the Cubans affected by the leak if they were deported to the island.
“The safety and well-being of the refugees fleeing the (Cuban) regime must be the guiding principle of our immigration policy on Cuba,” Salazar said in his letter.
Federal regulations prohibit the disclosure, without DHS approval, of personal information about applicants for asylum or other immigration protections.
Salazar is not the only one who has been dispatched with criticism for the leak. Robyn Barnard, refugee advocacy director at Human Rights First, called the accidental leak an asylum seeker’s “nightmare scenario,” she told the newspaper. Los Angeles Timeswho first reported the incident.
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