Number of Cubans intercepted at sea rises to highest level in two decades

Number of Cubans intercepted at sea rises to highest level in two decades
Mike Clary
Sun Sentinel

Highest number of Cubans intercepted at sea in past two decades, Coast
Guard says

More Cubans were stopped at sea while trying to reach the U.S. in the
fiscal year ended Sept. 30 than at any time since the chaotic rafter
crisis of 1994, according to figures from the U.S. Coast Guard.

The total number of Cubans picked up on the ocean — heading to South
Florida in vessels often makeshift and unseaworthy — and returned to the
island during those 12 months was 2,924, according to figures released
this week.

In October, the first month of the federal government's fiscal 2016, 433
Cubans were stopped a sea, a figure higher than any month in the
previous fiscal year.

"This is a pattern that became noticeable [in recent months] and appears
sustainable," said anthropologist Jorge Duany, who studies Cuban
migration at Florida International University.

The fiscal year 2015 figure is only slightly higher than the 2,868
interdicted in 2007, which was the previous high after 1994, yet Duany
believes the numbers will continue to rise.

Experts say that many on the island who want to come to the U.S. fear
that America's renewed relationship with Cuba would make getting a visa
more difficult, or end the favorable treatment granted to Cuban immigrants.

Under the federal Cuban Adjustment Act of 1966, all Cubans have the
right to obtain legal residency regardless of whether they arrive in the
U.S. legally or illegally. The "wet foot-dry foot" policy, outlined in a
1995 accord, says that any Cuban intercepted at sea would be sent back
to Cuba, while those who make it to U.S. soil are allowed to stay.

The number of migrants stopped at sea does not necessarily serve as a
precise index of how many Cubans are leaving the island, Duany said.
Many Cubans without visas now enter the U.S. through Mexico after
traveling overland from Central and South America.

Others arrive by sea undetected.

The Coast Guard says it has stepped up patrols by boats and aircraft in
the waters between Florida and the island. "We're absolutely noticing
the numbers [of migrants], and we have to respond to that to protect our
borders," said Petty Officer Mark Barney, a Miami spokesman.

U.S. Coast Guard officials continue to caution that sea voyages,
especially in vessels referred to as "rustics" or "chugs," are perilous.

"U.S. immigration policies have not changed and we urge people not to
take to the ocean in very unseaworthy vessels. It is illegal and
extremely dangerous," Capt. Mark Fedor, the chief of response for the
Coast Guard's 7th District, said in a statement. "Once migrants are
interdicted at sea, they will be returned to their country of origin."

The crews of the Coast Guard Cutters Kathleen Moore and Marlin returned
85 Cubans to the island on Sunday. All had been picked up at sea in
seven separate interdictions aboard various small vessels, officials said.

Aboard the cutters the migrants receive food, water, shelter and basic
medical attention before they are dropped off at Bahia de Cabanas, Cuba.

In 1994, faced with a bleak economy and demonstrations in the streets of
Havana, then-president Fidel Castro told his security forces not to stop
any Cubans who wanted to leave the island. Beginning in August of that
year, more than an 38,000 Cuban "balseros" were picked up at sea,
according to Coast Guard figures.

Many were held for months in a sprawling tent city at the U.S. naval
base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The crisis ended with renewed migration accords in which the U.S. and
Cuban governments agreed that all future rafters stopped at sea would be
returned to Cuba and required to apply for a visa at the U.S. Interests
Section in Havana.

mwclary@tribune.com

Source: Number of Cubans intercepted at sea edges up to highest level in
two decades - Sun Sentinel -
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/florida/fl-coast-guard-cuban-interdiction-20151102-story.html