MIAMI, United States. – This Friday, three Cuban rafters made landfall in Islamorada, one of the Florida Keys. The migrants crossed the sea, from Cuba, in a homemade boat, indicated on Twitter Patrol Chief Walter N. Slosar.
“The migrants were medically examined and taken into our custody after making landfall in Islamorada, Florida. This is the second landing of migrants in South Florida today,” Slosar said.
This Friday, April 29, another six Cuban rafters landed on South Beach, Miamiand were taken into federal custody.
According to Slosar, “Since October 1, Border Patrol agents have responded to 93 maritime smuggling events in Florida.”
Weekly, dozens of Cuban rafters arrive on the shores of Florida. Most of the migrants are intercepted by US authorities, who try to dissuade migrants from the Island from jumping into the sea.
Last Wednesday, the United States Coast Guard repatriated 84 Cuban raftersas reported by that US body in a press release. The migrants were sailing to Florida on five different boats and were intercepted between April 17 and 19, according to the Coast Guard.
“These trips are dangerous in improvised and rustic boats without food, water or safety equipment,” said Following the repatriation, Lieutenant Travis Poulos, Coast Guard District Seven.
“Our air and ground crews, along with our local and federal law enforcement partners, work together every day to maintain an active presence in the Straits of Florida and the Mona and Windward Passages to help to save lives by preventing these trips,” he assured.
In the same statement, the Coast Guard specified that since October 1, 2021 (beginning of the current fiscal year), its different crews have intercepted 1,446 Cuban rafters, 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: 1,468 Cuban migrants intercepted in fiscal year 2017; 259 in 2018; 313 in 2019; 49 in 2020 and 838 in 2021.
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