MIAMI, United States.- The United States Coast Guard repatriated 21 Cuban rafters to the island this Thursday, after three interceptions off the Florida Keys last Monday in less than six hours, according to the federal agency in a release.
“Illegally migrating through the Caribbean Sea on vessels that lack safety equipment increases the risk of losing your life and never seeing your loved ones again,” Petty Officer 1st Class Coast Guard District 7 said in the statement. .
The first group of Cuban rafters was intercepted on Monday at approximately 6:15 p.m., when a crew from Air Station Miami HC-144 Ocean Sentry alerted Sector Key West watchmen of a rustic vessel some 60 miles south of Key West.
The same agents from the Air Station Miami HC-144 Ocean Sentry detected that same day, a few hours later, a makeshift boat sailing about 50 miles southwest of Marquesas Key and notified the Key West Sector officials at 7: 45 p.m. that afternoon.
On the same Monday, but at approximately 11:45 pm, the crew of the Coast Guard cutter William Trump alerted the watchmen of the Key West Sector about a capsized rustic boat, about 26 miles southwest of Anguilla Cay, Bahamas.
Since October 1, 2021, the date on which fiscal year 2022 began in the United States, US Coast Guard crews have intercepted 2,319 Cubans.
In fiscal year 2016, some 5,396 migrants from the island were detained by USCG troops. In 2017, there were 1,468 and during 2018 the figure was 259. Meanwhile, in 2019 the detainees did not exceed 313, while, in the midst of the pandemic, in 2020, the number of Cuban rafters was 49. Last year 2021 the Cuban rafters intercepted were 838.
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