The U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) on Sunday repatriated 64 Cuban migrants who were attempting to enter the country illegally by raft. Most of them (54 men and 10 women) are from Matanzas and Mayabeque provinces, located in western Cuba.
Record number of repatriates
So far this fiscal year (since October 1, 2022), 6,202 Cubans have been repatriated to the island. This figure breaks the record from 2016 as the year with the most Cuban migrants intercepted and returned to their country:
- 6,182 Cuban migrants repatriated by 2022.
- 838 (2021).
- 49 (2020).
- 313 (2019).
- 259 (2018).
- 1,468 (2017).
- 5,396 (2016).
Coast Guard Lieutenant John Beal defended the work of maritime officers and warned that "anyone attempting to illegally enter the United States by sea will be rescued and repatriated."
Our Homeland Security Task Force partners are patrolling our maritime borders and are reaching out 24/7 by land, air and sea to save lives and prevent illegal crossings. Anyone attempting to illegally enter the United States by sea will be rescued and repatriated and those who disembark will be detained and processed for removal.
2022 and 2023 years of massive Cuban exodus
Cuba's Ministry of the Interior (MININT) reported that 2,998 illegal migrants have returned to the island from various countries in the region so far in 2023. Of these, 2,165 citizens have been from the U.S. in 31 separate Coast Guard operations.
Retornó EEUU a 64 migrantes irregulares por el Puerto de Orozco, en Bahía Honda, Artemisa, quienes habían participado en 6 salidas ilegales del país por vía marítima. Suman 52 operaciones desde naciones del área y un total de 2 998 ciudadanos cubanos devueltos en 2023. #Cuba pic.twitter.com/HO31totsWX
— MININT_CUBA (@minint_cuba) April 3, 2023
In 2022, authorities registered more than 227,000 entries of illegal Cubans into the country fleeing the dictatorship. Many opt to arrive by land via Nicaragua or Mexico before reaching the U.S. A Cuban immigrant - who preferred to remain anonymous - told Euronews:
People do everything in Cuba with the economic issue in order to make that journey (Cuba, Nicaragua, Mexico, USA) they sell their houses, in our case we sold our house, we sold our goods, we sold everything we had, we were left with nothing with the risk that if we were deported, we would arrive in Cuba with nothing, we lost everything.
