MIAMI, United States. – This Wednesday, the United States Coast Guard repatriated 84 Cuban rafters, as reported today by the US agency in a press release.
The 84 migrants were sailing to Florida on five different boats and were intercepted between April 17 and 19, according to the Coast Guard.
The watchmen of the Sector of Key West were notified of the presence of a migrant boat about 7 miles south of Boot Key at approximately 3:30 p.m. on April 17. On the same day, the crew of the HC-144 Ocean Sentry aircraft from Coast Guard Air Station Miami alerted observers in the Key West Sector to another rustic vessel, about 23 miles southwest of Cay Sal, Bahamas.
For their part, on April 18, the same agents were notified of another migrant boat, which at approximately 9:00 in the morning of that day was about 17 miles south of Marathon.
Also on April 18, the crew of a Customs and Border Protection Air and Marine Operations aircraft alerted Key West Sector watchers to another vessel located about 52 miles southwest of Marathon.
And finally, on April 19, the crew of the HC-144 Ocean Sentry aircraft from Coast Guard Air Station Miami alerted the same observers in Key West to a rustic vessel located about 44 miles south of Marathon. .
“These trips are dangerous in improvised and rustic boats without food, water or safety equipment,” said Lieutenant Travis Poulos, of the Seventh Coast Guard District, after the events. “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.
The Coast Guard also 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 since 2017. until 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.
“Once aboard a Coast Guard patrol boat, all migrants receive food, water, shelter and basic medical care,” said the US agency, which once again encouraged Cubans not to jump into the sea.
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