MIAMI — U.S. Coast Guard crews stopped a migrant boat carrying more than 300 people from Haiti offshore of Cuba, the agency said in a statement.
Petty Officer Nicole Groll, a Coast Guard spokeswoman, said the boat was stopped Wednesday off Punta de Maisi, a town off the eastern tip of Cuba.
The group, which included women and children, was on board an 80-foot vessel that looked like from the photo the Coast Guard released to be either a small cargo ship or tugboat.
It appeared to be much more seaworthy than the types of dilapidated sail freighters that most Haitians have been using to try to get to the U.S. during the latest migrant surge that began more than a year ago.
The last large group of migrants to arrive in the U.S. was a week earlier when 114 people arrived off the Upper Florida Keys town of Tavernier on a sailboat.
