The United States Coast Guard returned 26 Cuban rafters who were captured on the high seas when they were trying to enter the country illegally near the Florida Keys.
The agency reported that last Tuesday, May 14, a boat from the Islamorada station spotted the migrants aboard a rustic boat in the vicinity of Crocker Reef.
Station crews intercepted the Cuban boat and transported them to the Seneca Coast Guard, where they received food, water and basic medical care.
Finally all were returned to Cuba on Friday, May 17 in the Cutter Paul Clark.
The Ministry of the Interior (MININT) of Cuba revealed that the 26 rafters had left illegally through Villa Clara and had been sailing for three days when they were intercepted by US authorities.
“There are 40 operations with 571 returned in 2024, from several countries in the region,” the MININT detailed on its Twitter account on Saturday, May 18.
That same day, others seven Cuban rafters who managed to make landfall in Key Largo were detected and detained by agents of the United States Border Patrol (USBP) in the Miami sector.
Samuel Briggs II, chief USBP agent in the Miami sector, reported the event in a post on Twitter, where he warned that “illegal maritime migration ventures during these stifling temperatures are extremely dangerous and potentially deadly.”
