Thirty-three Cuban men were rescued from the water by U.S. Coast
Guard crews Wednesday morning after they threw themselves off a boat
that was taking on water off Boca Raton in southern Palm Beach County.
A Coast Guard spokesman said the incident occurred about seven miles east of Boca Raton in the Atlantic Ocean.
The
rescue came two days after 13 Cuban rafters attempted to reach Miami in
a makeshift boat that broke apart near the Turkey Point nuclear power
plant. Eleven of the migrants were rescued or made it safely to land and
two were still missing Wednesday.
“Upon our assets arriving on
scene, the suspected migrants were taken aboard a Coast Guard boat and
safely transferred to a Coast Guard Cutter for basic medical attention
if needed,” the Coast Guard said in a statement.
News of the 33 migrants in the water off Boca Inlet
immediately raised questions about whether this was the second group of
Cuban migrants said to be traveling to Miami from Mariel, a Cuban port
west of Havana.
Ramón Saúl Sánchez, leader of Miami-based
Democracy Movement, said he was contacted by a member of the Cuban exile
community Tuesday asking for information about a boat carrying 23 Cuban
migrants that left nine days ago from Mariel.
Coast Guard officials said they did not know if the boat had left from Mariel.
The 13 Cubans who attempted to reach Miami Monday departed more than 10 days ago from Cojimar in Cuba.
Five
of those Cubans were held aboard a Coast Guard cutter and likely will
be returned to the island. The six others who reached land or were
brought ashore likely will be allowed to stay.
Under the so-called
wet foot/dry foot policy, Cuban migrants interdicted at sea are
generally returned to the island while those who reach U.S. soil get to
stay.
Sánchez and relatives of some of the rafters who arrived
Monday were on two boats in Biscayne Bay conducting their own search for
the two missing Cubans. By telephone from his boat, Sánchez said they
were searching in waters where the rafters’ boat broke apart Sunday near
the Turkey Point nuclear plant in South Miami-Dade.
All of the 33
migrants plucked from the water off Boca on Wednesday never reached
land. They were all being held on a Coast Guard vessel Wednesday
afternoon, officials said.
A Coast Guard statement said the 33
migrants “jumped in the water from their grossly overloaded vessel 7
miles east of Boca Inlet.”
The migrants in the water were
initially spotted by the crew of a Coast Guard C-130 who were searching
for the two missing Cubans from Monday’s arrival.
The Coast Guard
dispatched the cutters Shrike and Robert Yered as well as search and
rescue boats from bases in Fort Lauderdale and Lake Worth Inlet.
Also:
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario