![]() As a result, in January 2023 the Biden administration introduced legislation that it hopes will halt the wave of ‘illegal’ Cuban entrants and that threatens to undermine the blanket privileges granted to Cubans in the US. But the current surge is creating political problems for the US government, as its opponents exploit the issue for electoral gain. Cuban migrants fuel US propaganda about the failure of socialism and about political persecution and the lack of freedom and human rights on the island. Historically the US has encouraged and weaponised Cuban emigration. More than 3,000 of those migrants have been found since mid-March, signaling the pace has been picking up in the spring.In 2022, an unprecedented number of Cubans arrived in the United States through irregular, or ‘illegal’ channels. Many were trying to come ashore in the Florida Keys in overloaded vessels. Coast Guard crews have interdicted about 4,500 Haitians since October. ![]() A month prior, 140 migrants landed in the Florida Keys. Coast Guard spotted more than 130 Haitian migrants aboard a boat near the Bahamas. The rescue came just days after 68 migrants were rescued in treacherous waters between Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti. Coast Guard said it stopped a sail freighter carrying 153 Haitian migrants near the Florida Keys.Įarlier this month, the Coast Guard rescued 36 Haitian migrants and found 11 others dead - all women - after a boat capsized northwest of Puerto Rico. jurisdictions in the Caribbean has doubled. authorities say the number of Haitian migrants detained in and around U.S. Human rights activists in Haiti say those fleeing believe they are safer taking the risk on an overcrowded boat than staying in their country. Cuba returns most of the arriving migrants to Haiti.Ī crumbling economy and a spike in gang-related violence and kidnappings in Haiti has prompted thousands of Haitians to flee their country in the past year. It is not unusual for currents and winds to carry Haitians to Cuba, which borders most of the sea path between Haiti and the U.S. Coast Guard and other nations have reported intercepting several boats carrying well over 100 Haitians in recent months. ![]() While the number of migrants on this single vessel seemed unprecedented, the U.S. With a flashlight, they managed to draw the attention of people on Cuba’s coast. The family said the captain abandoned them early Tuesday on a separate small boat after taking their cellphones. Paul was traveling with an uncle, his wife and a baby at a cost of $4,000 per person. “There was a herring for (each) 15 people and they gave us water.” In the following days, “15 people threw themselves into the sea because they couldn’t stand hunger,” Paul said. “We were on Tortuga Island for two months waiting for the trip until last Saturday, when at five in the morning they took us to the boat,” 19-year-old Joyce Paul, who arrived on the boat, told The Associated Press. The Haitians said they called for help with light signals after being abandoned and cast adrift by their captain. ![]() The group arrived Tuesday at Villa Blanca, about 300 kilometers (180 miles) east of Havana, and reportedly included 70 children and 97 women. Red Cross officials in the province of Villa Clara said Wednesday that the 842 Haitians were being housed at a tourist campground. VILLA CLARA, Cuba (AP) - A vessel carrying more than 800 Haitians trying to reach the United States wound up instead on the coast of central Cuba, in what appeared to be the largest group seen yet in a swelling exodus from crisis-stricken Haiti.
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