United States authorities arrested this Wednesday 16 Cuban rafters after making landfall near Key West, Florida, aboard a rustic boat.
The Cubans are in the custody of the Border Patrol and are receiving care from the Emergency Medical Services (EMS), according to the chief patrol agent Walter N. Slosar.
The boat excursion agency Life On The Rocks Charters shared a video on its Instagram account where the Cubans are seen shortly after touching down on US land in the Geiger Key area, being treated by local authorities.
The eve, seven Cuban rafters were rescued by border agents after arriving at Boca Grande Key, an uninhabited island off Florida.
These news take place in the midst of a massive exodus of Cubans to the United States, by sea or through Central American countries and Mexico, fundamentally.
So far this fiscal year, which began in October 2021, the US Coast Guard has intercepted more than 3,500 Cuban rafters at sea; while by border have requested political asylum more than 157 thousand citizens of the island, the highest figure in history.
Current migration agreements establish that Cubans who are detected on the high seas by the Coast Guard must be returned to Cuba, as long as the island is responsible for not taking reprisals against them.
Although the “wet foot-dry foot” policy is not in force, US authorities have the power to decide what to do with those Cubans who cross the Straits of Florida and show that their lives could be in danger if they are returned to their country.
Elian Lopez Cabrera He escaped Cuba on a windsurf board and after being rescued by the US Coast Guard, he exposed his situation and was granted a non-deportation permit.
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