The US Coast Guard has intercepted 388 Cuban migrants at sea in the first two weeks of this month of October alone, figures that reflect the continued growth in encounters with rafters in the Florida Straits, which increased from 838 in the year fiscal 2021 to a record 6,182 in the same period of 2022, the highest record in the last seven years.
In a statement, the Coast Guard reported that the cutters Richard Snyder, William Flores and Paul Clark repatriated a total of 148 Cubans last weekend. Several boats were sighted by “good Samaritans” who informed the authorities.
“Choose a safe and legal path to coming to the US so families don’t lose their loved ones,” insisted Petty Officer Nicole Groll, in the press release, replicated on Twitter along with the hashtag #DonTakeToTheSea (“don’t throw yourself into the sea”, in Spanish)
The number of Cuban rafters intercepted at sea decreased drastically in 2017, after then-President Barack Obama eliminated the law known as ‘Dry Feet, Wet Feet’, which guaranteed asylum and immediate benefits to islanders who managed to set foot on US land. .
The worsening of the economic and political crisis in Cuba, where thousands have taken to the streets in unprecedented protests, has caused a rebound in outings to the sea.
Cubans have also found other ways to reach the United States, including through Nicaragua, one of the few countries with a visa waiver program with Havana. After arriving in Managua, the islanders undertake a difficult journey overland to the southern border of the United States, spending small fortunes and face danger growing older.
In the fiscal year of 2022, 177,848 migrants and asylum seekers arrived in the US from Cuba, a new historical record that surpassed the combined records of the Mariel exodus in 1980 and the Balseros crisis of 1994, the two largest migratory waves from the island Until now.
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