The Coast Guard from the United States returned to Cuba between Friday and Saturday a group of 174 illegal migrantsaccording to reported on website.
The group of Cubans, of which no details of gender and age are offered, is due to eleven operations carried out between Tuesday and Thursday in different areas of the Florida Keys and the Bahamas.
#breaking @USCG Cutter Raymond Evans’ crew repatriated 174 Cubans to #Cuba Fri., Sat.
“Our crews are out in full force to save lives & encourage safe, legal migration in the Caribbean Sea.” – LCDR Stiehl. #DontTakeToTheSea
Read for??️: https://t.co/dvS91bktWQ@USEmbCuba pic.twitter.com/iYreQsLJPf
— USCGSoutheast (@USCGSoutheast) October 8, 2022
The first of those groups was laid out at dawn Tuesday, approximately 50 miles from Cudjoe Key. That same day, air and naval patrols spotted precarious boats with migrants in the vicinity of Cayo Marquesas, Cayo Largo, Islamorada, Cayo Sal (Bahamas) and Boca Grande.
On Thursday, new groups were intercepted in boats already close to Cayo Marquesas, Rebecca Shoal and Cayo Hueso.
“Coast Guard crews and our partner agencies are in full swing saving lives and promoting safe and legal migration in the Straits of Florida and the Windward and Mona Passages,” said Lt. Cmdr. Tanner Stiehl, District Seven of the coastguard.
Since October 1 of this year, the US Coast Guard has carried out 226 operations of this type. In the fiscal year (2022) that ended precisely on that date, they carried out 6,182 rescues, the highest figure in the record usually provided by the agency, marked in 2016, when the numbers closed at 5,396.
Cuba is experiencing a migration crisis that exceeds any previous data in numbers. Across the border between Mexico and the Straits of Florida, thousands of Cubans take risks with the purpose of emigrate to the United States.
Analysts attribute the increase in the flow of Cubans leaving the island, both those who bet on journeys through Central American countries and those who take to the sea in precarious boats, to the acute economic crisis in the country, which includes a rise in the cost of living, the ruthless devaluation of the peso and the increasingly uncertain projection of the future.
