MIAMI — Three groups of Cuban people arrived in the Lower Keys this week, as the surge in attempts to flee Cuba for Florida by making a treacherous journey by sea — most often in unsafe homemade boats — continues.
In each case, the people were taken into custody by Border Patrol agents.
A group of three men arrived Monday in a small vessel made from foam, at a beach at Key West’s Fort Zachary Taylor Historic State Park. They spent three days at sea, authorities said.
“As summer temps rise, this becomes an increasingly dangerous journey at sea,” said Chief Patrol Agent Walter N. Slosar, of the Border Patrol’s Miami sector.
In a photo taken of the men, three sit at a picnic table with a package of water bottles. Two are giving the photographer a thumbs-up, beneath the pine trees, not far from a row of beach umbrellas planted in the sand.
On Tuesday evening, a group of 10 people from Cuba arrived by a homemade boat built of foam at the beach near the luxurious Casa Marina resort in Key West.
“The boat sank as it came to shore,” Keys resident Mike Gallagher said in a text to FLKeysNews.com/Miami Herald after watching the arrival. “It took all hands on deck to bail the water.”
In a tweet about the landing, Slosar said, “This is a dangerous journey across the Florida Straits onboard a homemade vessel.”
Gallagher said the men aboard appeared to celebrate arriving safely to the U.S. Several tourists greeted them with hugs and high-fives. Police officers brought them water.
On Thursday, 12 men from Cuba arrived on shore of the Lower Keys island of Sugarloaf Key, according to the Border Patrol.
The Coast Guard has also been busy with migrant activity off the Keys this week. On Friday, the agency said one of its Keys-based crews transferred 23 people from Cuba to Bahamian authorities who were stopped at sea Monday off Elbow Key in the Bahamas and Monday off Anguilla, also in the Bahamas.
And, the Coast Guard returned 40 people back to Cuba who were intercepted at sea in separate incidents Monday and Tuesday.
South Florida and the Bahamas are seeing the largest exodus by sea of people from Cuba in seven years, with 2,146 people from the island nation stopped along the Florida Straits and Bahamian waters since the beginning of October.
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