The United States Border Patrol agents detained 58 Cuban rafters this weekend, according to what was announced in your social networks Officer Walter N. Slosar. The migrants were located as part of “six maritime smuggling events in the Florida Keys.”
Slosar indicated that “since October 1, agents have responded to 104 maritime smuggling events that have made landfall in Florida.” The exodus of Cubans has increased in recent months.
This Monday, the Coast Guard repatriated 61 Cubans to the Island who were intercepted between Wednesday and Friday last week near Key West.
“Were it not for our cutters and planes patrolling these waters, the results of those voyages could have been very different,” he said in a release Lieutenant Connor Ives, security officer for Coast Guard District Seven. “There is no greater mission than safeguarding lives at sea.”
#breaking @USCG Cutter William Flores repatriated 61 Cubans to #CubaMonday.
“If not for our cutters and aircraft patrolling these waters the outcomes of those voyages may have been far different.” – Lt. Ives. #DontTakeToTheSea
Readmore: https://t.co/ng7FgokKK5 @USEmbCuba pic.twitter.com/jTPVICLxNO
— USCGSoutheast (@USCGSoutheast) May 9, 2022
Radio Televisión Martí estimates that by the end of this fiscal year – which runs from October 1, 2021 to September 30, 2022 – around 150,000 Cubans will have entered the United States, more than the 125,000 who entered this territory by sea during the Mariel exodus, between April and October 1980.
On May 3, officer Walter N. Slosar public the “arrest of 13 Cuban rafters after they arrived in a homemade boat at a local beach in Marathon.” A day earlier, agents from the Miami sector reported that 11 natives of the island “were taken into federal custody” in Florida.
The Coast Guard had already repatriated 75 Cubans last Saturday, who were detained during three operations off the Florida Keys. The transfer was made through the ship Paul Clarkas reported then in a release.
“The risk of loss of life is great when these illegal migrations are attempted on unpredictable seas and in crude and unsafe vessels,” said US Lt. E’Bria Karega.
Since last October, the US Coast Guard has intercepted 1,689 Cubans at sea, compared to 838 detained between October 2020 and September 2021.
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