MIAMI, United States. – A group of Cuban rafters made landfall this afternoon on the shores of Dania Beach, a city belonging to Broward County, north of Miami, as reported to CubaNet the journalist Mario J. Pentón, witness of the disembarkation.
The rafters, whose number has not yet been reported by the authorities, crossed the Strait of Florida in a homemade boat that was photographed by bathers.
According to Pentón, the relevant authorities went to the landing site and detained the rafters, whose most likely destination is deportation to the island.
Just this Wednesday The United States Coast Guard repatriated 77 Cuban rafters, including three who would have crossed the Straits of Florida on a water bike, according to published images by that US agency.
The 77 Cubans were intercepted in several 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.
“We urge families in the United States to encourage their loved ones to migrate legally,” said Lt. Cmdr. Mark Cobb, a security officer for Coast Guard District Seven in the wake of the soaring illegal migration of Cubans in the past. going from the current fiscal year.
“Illegally crossing the unpredictable Florida Straits in crude and improvised boats is very dangerous and can result in loss of life,” he added.
Since October 1, 2021, the beginning of the current fiscal year, US Coast Guard crews have intercepted 3,369 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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