In the last six days, the United States Coast Guard repatriated 404 Cubans who were detained in their attempt to reach Florida on rustic rafts. As a measure to stop the migratory flow, Lt. Matt Miller warned that people who “illegally migrate by sea will not be allowed to stay”.
This Sunday 40 rafters were returned to the Island on board the ship Paul Clark. Miller recommended that the Cuban rafters “choose a safe and legal means” to enter the United States, recalling that last year the Secretary of National Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, anticipated that if they did not do so they would be “expelled”, in addition to “risking their lives”.
Another group with 94 rafters was repatriated after being arrested on the high seas and returned on Saturday in the same Paul Clark. Lieutenant Connor Ives, who shared an image of the wooden boats in which the migrants arrive, warned of the danger of traveling on these rafts with an excess of people.
The largest group of returnees, with 270, was transferred last Tuesday. The authorities of the Cuban Border Guard Troops and the United States Coast Guard Service have held meetings to reduce the exodus of rafters, the most recent taking place in Havana last September.
For persons residing in the US seeking information about a relative possibly intercepted by the Coast Guard, please contact your local government representative. pic.twitter.com/FemuOW8LfS
— USCGSoutheast (@USCGSoutheast) October 21, 2022
The meeting discussed ways to increase cooperation between the two services to tackle migrant smugglingillegal departures, illicit drug trafficking and maritime search and rescue operations.
The strategy has been a failure in containing rafters. Since October 1, 2022, when the fiscal year began, Coast Guard crews have intercepted 921 Cubans.
On Thursday, the head of the Border Patrol of the Miami sector, Walter Slosar, who has registered the arrival of several of these rafters, reported the disembarkation of 24 people, four of them children, in Marathon, in a boat to which they put by name The cream. After receiving medical attention they were taken into custody.
A day earlier, Slosar confirmed the arrival of 80 rafters who arrived in Florida through the Marquesas Keys. Among them was Loisel De Leon Morales, a young man who recorded his journey along with 21 other friends. After surrendering, they were released and reunited with relatives waiting to find out their future.
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