MIAMI, United States. — The United States Coast Guard (USCG) repatriated 27 Cuban rafters on Tuesday, reported the Ministry of the Interior (MININT).
A note signed by that body and disseminated by the state press It indicates that the deportees were 25 men and two women who had participated in two illegal exits from the country and who were intercepted at sea by the US Coast Guard.
According to the MININT report, most of the migrants who were returned to the port of Orozco, in Bahía Honda, Artemisa province, resided in Matanzas and Holguín.
With the new returns, there are 2,642 Cubans who have been returned by the US Coast Guard in a total of 40 operations carried out in 2023.
So far this year, a total of 3,580 Cubans have been deported to Cuba in 68 operations carried out from different countries in the area, such as the United States, Mexico, the Bahamas and the Cayman Islands.
“Cuba remains firm in its commitment to regular, safe and orderly migration, while reiterating the danger and life-threatening conditions represented by illegal departures from the country by sea,” the MININT statement said.
Last week, in a similar operation, the US Coast Guard deported 27 irregular migrants who, according to MININT itself, “had participated in an illegal exit from the country through the province of Matanzas” aboard a rustic boat.
As happened this Tuesday, those rafters, mostly residents in the province of Las Tunas, were transferred by the US coast guard to the port of Orozco.
In recent months, US authorities have stepped up surveillance in the Florida Straits to curb illegal maritime raids, which skyrocketed last year.
In addition, US officials have stressed that those who arrive illegally to the northern country they will be returned immediately to the place where they came from and will not be eligible for the humanitarian parole launched by the Biden administration in January of this year.
