Miami: A group of 25 Cuban immigrants were rescued early Monday after reaching an island in the Florida Keys in the latest of a wave of crossings from the communist-ruled nation, local authorities said.
The Cubans were spotted on Cook Island by a passing boater and personnel from the local sheriff's office ferried them to Little Torch Key and turned them over to US Customs and Border Patrol agents.
"They were all in good condition," the Monroe County sheriff's office said.
The 24 men and a woman, who will be allowed to remain in the United States under Cold War-era immigration laws, were the latest in a growing surge of Cubans making the dangerous voyage.
Many are risking their lives in the attempt for fear that the normalization of US-Cuban relations undertaken by Presidents Barack Obama and Raul Castro presages an end to the special status granted Cuban immigrants under the law.
On Saturday, the US Coast Guard intercepted a makeshift boat carrying 26 Cubans, including seven with gunshot wounds.
Two of the wounded said they were fired on by a group of assailants who had tried to take the raft from them as they were setting off from Cuba.
Six of the wounded were taken to hospitals in the Florida Keys and Miami, and will be allowed to stay in the country, having touched dry land, a requirement for benefitting from US laws granting Cubans a fast-track to legal residency in the United States.
The rest will be repatriated to Cuba.
On March 18, a cruise ship picked up a group of 18 severely dehydrated Cuban immigrants off the coast of Florida, but nine others died during the attempted crossing.
More than 43,000 Cubans entered the United States by sea or land during the 2015 fiscal year ending in September, a number not seen in decades.
Since October, more than 2,500 Cubans have tried to reach US shores in rafts and makeshift boats, according to the Coast Guard.
AFP
