MIAMI, United States. – The Bahamas returned to Cuba this Thursday a group of 128 irregular migrants, enforcing the agreements established with the largest of the Antilles, according to a report from the Ministry of the Interior (MININT) quoted by Prensa Latina.
With the 128 migrants returned by air this Thursday (106 men, 20 women and two minors), there are 459 people returned from Bahamian territory to Cuba so far this year.
According to the MININT, one of the repatriated migrants was transferred to the investigative bodies for being, allegedly, “the commissioner of serious criminal acts, which were being investigated since before he became involved in the illegal departure.”
According to official sources, this is the 41st return operation (eighth from the Bahamas) carried out in 2023. With it, the number of people returned to the largest of the Antilles from various countries in the region rises to 2,601.
At the beginning of February of this year it also transpired that a total of 130 Cuban migrants had been deported from the Bahamas. The group, made up of 107 men, 22 women and one minor, arrived at the José Martí International Airport aboard a Bahamas Air flight.
On that occasion, the MININT indicated that all the repatriated migrants had left the country illegally by sea and that four of them “were transferred to the investigative bodies because they were alleged perpetrators of serious criminal acts, which were previously investigated.” at his departure.”
Between January 1 and October 2, 2022, the Bahamian authorities had detained 2,804 migrants: 1,916 Haitians and 519 Cubans, figures that exceed the number of arrests in the last three years.
Last December, some 125 Cuban rafters were still in that country waiting to be deported.
Maritime incursions by Cubans into the territorial waters of the Bahamas continued in 2023. Only between Sunday, January 8, and Thursday, January 12, did the authorities of that nation intercept 60 irregular migrants from the island.
The report from the Royal Bahamas Defense Force specified that 51 of these migrants were intercepted on January 8 near Cayo Anguilla by the crew of the HMBS Bahamas patrol vessel. The presence of these had been previously warned by the United States Coast Guard, which has reinforced its presence in the Florida Straits in the face of the massive arrival of Cubans on the coasts of that country.
