MIAMI, United States. – A group of 27 Cuban rafters were taken into the custody of the United States Border Patrol this Saturday morning, after making landfall in Key West aboard a wooden boat, reported on Twitter Agent Walter N. Slosar.
Just a day earlier, another group of 14 Cuban migrants were also intercepted by Coast Guard agents, after crossing the Straits of Florida in a rustic boat and making landfall in Long Key State Park, in the Florida Keys, reported Slosar himself.
Every week, dozens of Cuban rafters approach the coast of Florida, where they are generally intercepted by agents of the United States Coast Guard 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.
Last Tuesday, the crew of the Coast Guard cutter Charles Sexton repatriated 41 Cubans, after several rescue operations in the vicinity of the Florida Keys, according to reported the Coast Guard.
Last week, the Coast Guard also repatriated 77 Cuban raftersincluding three who would have crossed the Straits of Florida on a water bike, according to published images by that US agency.
The 77 Cubans had been intercepted in various operations near the Florida Keys, from last Saturday, July 9, until this Monday, according to a statement of the Coast Guard.
The number of Cuban migrants intercepted by US authorities in the last nine months already exceeds 3,000.
Since October 1, 2021, the beginning of the current fiscal year, US Coast Guard crews have intercepted 3,470 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.
“Once aboard a Coast Guard patrol boat, all migrants receive food, water, shelter and basic medical attention,” the Coast Guard has indicated on other occasions.
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