MIAMI, United States. – More than half a thousand Cuban migrants have disembarked in the Florida Keys since the weekend, the news agency reported this Wednesday Associated Press.
Dry Tortugas National Park, located 110 kilometers west of Key West, had to close this week while the United States Coast Guard evacuated the Cuban migrants who landed there in the last days of 2022 and the beginning of 2023.
Cuban activist Ramón Raúl Sánchez, from the Democracy Movement group, who visited the Florida Keys on Wednesday, told the AP that the federal government should provide a more coordinated response to the humanitarian crisis unleashed by the arrival of Cuban rafters.
“There is a migration and humanitarian crisis, and it is necessary for the president to respond by helping local authorities,” Sánchez said.
Despite the risks involved in crossing the Straits of Florida in homemade boats, Cubans continue to take to the sea by the hundreds in the hope of reaching the shores of the United States and being admitted into the country.
“I would rather die to achieve my dream and help my family. The situation in Cuba is not very good,” Jeiler del Toro Díaz told The New Herald shortly after reaching Key Largo.
Last Monday, the Dry Tortugas National Park hill temporarily its access to the public due to the massive arrival of Cuban migrants.
“The closure, which is expected to last several days, is necessary for the safety of visitors and workers, for the resources and space necessary to care for migrants,” the National Park Service said Sunday through a statement. release.
Park rescuers provide food, water and basic medical care to these people until the Department of Homeland Security arrives, which deals with the subsequent procedure.
Since October 1, 2022, the beginning of the fiscal year, to date, the United States Coast Guard crews have intercepted more than 4,000 Cubans.
Recently, the United States Embassy in Havana alerted Cuban migrants that it would reinforce surveillance in the Straits of Florida, with a view to confronting the increase in irregular maritime migration. Just as he declared that the migration crisis has become a National Security concern.
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