MIAMI — The U.S. Coast Guard on Wednesday returned 49 people to Cuba after stopping four vessels off the Florida Keys.
Three of the four boats carrying Cubans were spotted in the span of half an hour on Sunday morning, the Coast Guard said in a news release.
At 10:30 a.m. Sunday, a Coast Guard crew found a “rustic vessel” about 2.5 miles southeast of Ocean Reef Club in Key Largo, according to the agency. Just 10 minutes later, a crew detected another boat 23 miles south of Long Key — and 20 minutes after that another crew stopped a boat taking on water 16 miles south off Key West.
A fourth boat had been located earlier, at 8:20 a.m. Friday about 30 miles south of Key West, the Coast Guard said.
“When our crews arrive on scene, no one is wearing a life jacket and the vessel is usually taking on water because these rustic, unsafe vessels are built with anything that floats,” said Petty Officer Nicole J. Groll, a Coast Guard District Seven spokeswoman. “These voyages are dangerous and the risk for loss of life is great.”
The Coast Guard tallies the number of migrants detained by fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1 and ends Sept. 30 of the following year. Since Oct. 1 of last year, Coast Guard crews have stopped 1,556 Cuban migrants compared to:
— 5,396 Cuban migrants in Fiscal Year 2016
— 1,468 Cuban migrants in Fiscal Year 2017
— 259 Cuban migrants in Fiscal Year 2018
— 313 Cuban migrants in Fiscal Year 2019
— 49 Cuban migrants in Fiscal Year 2020
— 838 Cuban migrants in Fiscal Year 2021
