HAVANA (Reuters) – A makeshift boat loaded with Cubans drifted just off Havana’s seaside drive on Monday before those aboard were rescued by the Cuban Coast Guard as hundreds of spectators looked on.
A passerby who said he helped police bring on shore two men who had jumped ship as the coast guard arrived, told Reuters the migrants said they had left from a town just west of Havana, but their motor had quickly failed.
“They had paid 50,000 Cuban pesos each (approximately $285) to get on the boat to leave for the United States, but the engine broke and began to smoke,” Joel Anibal, who had been riding his bicycle along the promenade of the drive, known as the Malecon. “Thank God it seems they’re all fine.”
As the coast guard towed the boat into Havana Bay an American flag could be seen pasted to its side.
Would be migrants receive health checks and are released, though organizers of the dangerous journeys can be charged with human trafficking.
A severe economic downturn in Cuba has driven a massive spike in migration from the Caribbean island.
Some migrants attempt to reach Florida via dangerous journeys on rickety vessels that sometimes end in tragedy, though most fly to Central America or Mexico and cross by land.
A record 220,000 Cubans were stopped at the U.S.-Mexico border in fiscal year 2022, which ended on Sept. 30. The vast majority were allowed into the United States to pursue immigration cases.
The U.S. Coast Guard reported it intercepted 6,182 Cubans at sea in fiscal year 2022, and another 2,982 since then as of Saturday.
Almost all were returned to Cuba.
(Reporting by Nelson Acosta and Reuters TV; additional reporting by Ted Hesson in Washington; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)
