Five Cuban rafters die at sea in attempt to leave country

Sandokan · Aug 23, 2019

Nickyjo said:
So do I. The ridiculous rule as I understood it used to be that if you reached shore, you might be able to apply for asylum. If caught in the waves, no. US policy has hardly worked, and Cubans suffer because of it. This is not to excuse the Cuban government, but if instead of a total embargo of the island we had US tourists wandering around it the past 60 years, the dictatorship would have ended.

During the 1960s and 1970s no major investment in tourism was undertaken by the regime, and about 16 hotels were closed down reducing hotel capacity. International tourism was minimal, mostly limited to tourist from socialist nations. In 1976 was created the National Institute of Tourism (INTUR) to stimulate international tourism, and tourism started to grow. By 1999, 190,300 American tourist arrive in Cuba, making the United States the third largest supplier of visitors to Cuba.

According to Cuba’s National Statistics Office (ONE), in 2014 the number of tourists surpassed the three million mark. ONE figures for 2016 recorded 765,900 American tourists, making the U.S. the second larger source of tourism and tourist dollars to the Castroit regime after Canada.

American tourists have limited contact with Cubans. Most Cuban resorts are built in isolated areas, are off limits to the average Cuban, and are controlled by Cuba’s security apparatus. Most Americans don’t speak Spanish, have but limited contact with ordinary Cubans, and are not interested in visiting the island to subvert its regime.

From 2000 to 2016, about 42 millions of tourist from around the world visited Cuba. Around 13% of those visitors were from the US, over 5.4 million tourists. They haven’t been able to influence a political and economic opening of the Castroit tyrannical regime. So much for the argument of the U.S. tourist power to bring about change.

Nickyjo · Aug 23, 2019

Sandokan said:
During the 1960s and 1970s no major investment in tourism was undertaken by the regime, and about 16 hotels were closed down reducing hotel capacity. International tourism was minimal, mostly limited to tourist from socialist nations. In 1976 was created the National Institute of Tourism (INTUR) to stimulate international tourism, and tourism started to grow. By 1999, 190,300 American tourist arrive in Cuba, making the United States the third largest supplier of visitors to Cuba.

According to Cuba’s National Statistics Office (ONE), in 2014 the number of tourists surpassed the three million mark. ONE figures for 2016 recorded 765,900 American tourists, making the U.S. the second larger source of tourism and tourist dollars to the Castroit regime after Canada.

American tourists have limited contact with Cubans. Most Cuban resorts are built in isolated areas, are off limits to the average Cuban, and are controlled by Cuba’s security apparatus. Most Americans don’t speak Spanish, have but limited contact with ordinary Cubans, and are not interested in visiting the island to subvert its regime.

From 2000 to 2016, about 42 millions of tourist from around the world visited Cuba. Around 13% of those visitors were from the US, over 5.4 million tourists. They haven’t been able to influence a political and economic opening of the Castroit tyrannical regime. So much for the argument of the U.S. tourist power to bring about change.

I assume the downplaying of tourism was due to the history of Cuba as the US's whorehouse. Similar to Castro's mistake in downplaying of sugar as a source of wealth. I still think that the more exposure that Cubans loyal to Castro might have had to Americans the more things might have opened up. The embargo and prohibition of visits for decades certainly didn't work. Guy I worked with in a restaurant in NYC in 1960, ironically named Fidel, hated Castro, but presumably speaking of geopolitics, said the US got what it deserved in Cuba. We might as well have dropped the pretense and made it a state, for all the lack of respect of its autonomy. See Godfather II for more info.

Priest in Latin America I knew told a story, presumably a legend, of Voice of America broadcasts to I believe Guatemala, where there was the beginning of a guerilla group opposing the monstrosity of a government-by-death-squad the US had set up in 1954. The VOA was talking about how Cubans were rationed to something like one kilo of meat per person per week or month, I forget which, defining that as how bad communism was on the island. Cuban propagandists got on the radio and said, "Guatemalans, when was the last time you saw a kilo of meat?"

Yes, Castro presided over a tyranny, with long prison sentences for political offenses. But people ate and had medical care. I worked with Cuban exiles for a while, including a poet who spent 10 years in one of Castro's jails. US-supported regimes avoided the nuisance of even show trials this wonderful man got. You were kidnapped, tortured and killed, sometimes with your family, by troops trained in the US. Name your poison.

Individual · Aug 23, 2019

Why do people flee from utopia?

joko104 · Aug 23, 2019

Nickyjo said:
So do I. The ridiculous rule as I understood it used to be that if you reached shore, you might be able to apply for asylum. If caught in the waves, no. US policy has hardly worked, and Cubans suffer because of it. This is not to excuse the Cuban government, but if instead of a total embargo of the island we had US tourists wandering around it the past 60 years, the dictatorship would have ended.

The more money the Castro government received and the more credibility we have it, it would have ended Castro's power? What a bizarre opinion. The Cuban government was on its last leg until President Obama endorsed it.

Nickyjo · Aug 23, 2019

joko104 said:
The more money the Castro government received and the more credibility we have it, it would have ended Castro's power? What a bizarre opinion. The Cuban government was on its last leg until President Obama endorsed it.

The Cuban government had been on its last leg for decades before Obama. How did he endorse it? Was it similar to Trump’s endorsement of tyranny in the Philippines or Saudi Arabia?

Sandokan · Aug 25, 2019

Nickyjo said:
I assume the downplaying of tourism was due to the history of Cuba as the US's whorehouse. Similar to Castro's mistake in downplaying of sugar as a source of wealth. I still think that the more exposure that Cubans loyal to Castro might have had to Americans the more things might have opened up. The embargo and prohibition of visits for decades certainly didn't work. Guy I worked with in a restaurant in NYC in 1960, ironically named Fidel, hated Castro, but presumably speaking of geopolitics, said the US got what it deserved in Cuba. We might as well have dropped the pretense and made it a state, for all the lack of respect of its autonomy. See Godfather II for more info.

Priest in Latin America I knew told a story, presumably a legend, of Voice of America broadcasts to I believe Guatemala, where there was the beginning of a guerilla group opposing the monstrosity of a government-by-death-squad the US had set up in 1954. The VOA was talking about how Cubans were rationed to something like one kilo of meat per person per week or month, I forget which, defining that as how bad communism was on the island. Cuban propagandists got on the radio and said, "Guatemalans, when was the last time you saw a kilo of meat?"

Yes, Castro presided over a tyranny, with long prison sentences for political offenses. But people ate and had medical care. I worked with Cuban exiles for a while, including a poet who spent 10 years in one of Castro's jails. US-supported regimes avoided the nuisance of even show trials this wonderful man got. You were kidnapped, tortured and killed, sometimes with your family, by troops trained in the US. Name your poison.

I am surprise that a person like you, which worked with Cubans exiles that provided you with firsthand information, are not better informed about the real history of Cuba. You said that “I assume the downplaying of tourism was due to the history of Cuba as the US's whorehouse”, and you add, “We might as well have dropped the pretense and made it a state, for all the lack of respect of its autonomy”, and cite as a reference “for more info” a fictional movie, Godfather II. Near the end of your post, you write, “But people ate and had medical care.”

Hopefully, you will have a better understanding of Cuba’s history after reading these posts.

With regard to prostitution see:

Thread: There is enough evidence against Spanish pedophile network that operated in Cuba

On page 5, see posts #43 through 50.

With regard to the Cuban Health Care System before and after 195 9, see:

Thread: Fidel Castro, Longtime Dictator of Cuba, Has Died

On page 25, see posts #241through 245. On page 25, see posts #251, 252 &253.

Thread: Cuba’s bloggers are as sharp abroad as at home

On page 1, post #8, Cubans Are Trapped In A Myth, the famous blogger Yoani Sanchez, in reference to the history under the Castroit regime, wrote: “A myth fed by five decades of distortion of our national history. A myth that no longer appeals to reason, only to blind belief, a myth that accepts no critics, only fans.”

See my post #9 on page 1, and on page 2 pots #11 to 13 about The myth of the success of the Cuban Health Care System.

Sandokan · Sep 8, 2019

6 Cubans in ramshackle wooden boat intercepted 7 miles off Boca Raton
6 Cubans in ramshackle wooden boat intercepted 7 miles off Boca Raton - South Florida Sun-Sentinel

By TONYA ALANEZ
SOUTH FLORIDA SUN SENTINEL | AUG 07, 2019

Six Cuban men were intercepted seven miles off the Boca Raton coast after someone reported a small suspicious wooden boat, the U.S. Coast Guard said. (U.S. Coast Guard / handout)

Acting on a report of a small, suspicious wooden vessel near Boca Raton, the U.S. Coast Guard found six Cuban migrants on a ramshackle, waterlogged boat.

By the time a Coast Guard cutter caught up with the 15-foot homespun craft, the six men on board were seven miles from the Boca Raton shore, authorities said.

Someone had reported seeing six men on a boat made of boards. The coast guard did not say how long it was until they found the men on Monday.

“People attempting to illegally enter the United States put their lives and their loved ones at risk,” said Miami-based Petty Officer Paula Verden. “These un-seaworthy crafts do not have navigational or safety equipment on board, exposing its occupants to a tragic scenario."

Things in Dr. Castro Island shall be really unbearable when Cubans continue to escape on unseaworthy rustic rafts, a risky and dangerous trip that has caused the dead of more than 96,000 rafters since 1959.

Sandokan · Sep 25, 2019

Since October 1, 2018, up to August 2019, about 438 Cubans rafters have been intercepted by the Coast Guard. During the 2018 fiscal year 384 were intercepted, according to the Coast Guard. This year the interceptions of Cubans rafters in the Straits of Florida have increased.

Sandokan · Oct 9, 2019

A cruise ship rescued seven migrants from a flimsy boat near Cuba
Cruise ship rescued seven migrants from a small boat near Cuba - CNN

By David Williams, CNN
Updated 4:24 PM ET, Wed September 18, 2019

A boat from the Majesty of the Seas towed a stranded boat carrying seven migrants.

CNN)The crew of a Royal Caribbean cruise ship took an unexpected detour to rescue seven Cuban migrants after their small boat broke down.

The Majesty of the Seas was about 66 miles southwest of Key West, near Cuba, when it made the rescue on Sunday, according to the US Coast Guard.

Passenger Steven Tauber was about to get a milkshake with his 9-year-old son, Skyler, when a loudspeaker announcement explained what was happening.

"The captain said they had seen some small boat and they were going to investigate and rescue those people," Tauber said.
Click link above for full article.

These rafters were lucky that the Royal Caribbean cruise ship took a detour to rescue them. Otherwise they would have been among the one hundred thousand that have died trying to escape from “Paradise Island” in a flimsy raft.

Sandokan · Oct 25, 2019

The Changing Face Of The Border: Cubans In Migration

OCTOBER 15, 2019 BY KINO BORDER INITIATIVE

Migrating to the U.S. has become increasingly difficult for Cubans in recent years. (Photo: Henry Sullivan)

Cubans seeking asylum currently comprise a significant percentage of the migrant population in Nogales. This is a trend that has occurred along the border for much of 2019. Part of the reason for this increase is a change in the ways that Cubans are processed and evaluated, and the favored status they once enjoyed has diminished. Read more about these changes in policy and demographics here.

An increasing number of Cubans have arrived to Nogales to present at the port of entry in recent months. Since the start of 2019, 81 people from Cuba have come through the comedor, making it the fifth-most populous nationality at KBI this year (after Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala, and Venezuela). However, this number is an artificially low representation of the actual number of Cubans in Nogales as there are a sizable number who do not seek the services of the comedor. As of September 20, there were 455 Cubans on the metering list in Nogales, which comprised nearly half of the total number of people on the list. Throughout most of this year, in cities such as Tijuana and Ciudad Juárez, Cubans comprised a particularly significant percentage of asylum-seekers affected by metering and, later, the implementation of the “Remain in Mexico” policy. As of May, Cubans were the third most common nationality making credible fear claims along the border, after Hondurans and Guatemalans.
Click link above for full article.

Cubans migrants that just to have a good chance to a path to legal status in the U.S., now have a minimal prospect of being granted asylum since January 2017 that the Obama administration put an end to the “wet foot, dry foot”, which took away the automatic asylum of Cubans migrants. Now the one coming though the U.S.- Mexico border, have to remain in Mexico until U.S. immigration system resolved their cases. Their chances to migrate legally to the U.S. have become very difficult.

Sandokan · Nov 11, 2019

Group of migrants lands in Florida Keys Wednesday morning in makeshift boat
Access Denied

BY DAVID GOODHUE
OCTOBER 09, 2019 11:19 AM, UPDATED OCTOBER 09, 2019 04:57 PM

A boat is beached on the shore of Key Colony Beach Wednesday morning, Oct. 9, 2019. Its passengers were a group of migrants who arrived in the Middle Florida Keys city earlier that day. MONROE COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE

A group of migrants landed on shore of the Middle Florida Keys city of Key Colony Beach Wednesday morning.
The 10 people arrived in a makeshift boat around 8:12 a.m., said Adam Linhardt, spokesman for the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office.

Agent Jade Matzel, with the U.S. Border Patrol office in Marathon, said the migrants were from Cuba.

Cuban migrant landings were a fairly common occurrence in South Florida and the Keys until early 2017, when the Obama administration, in one of its last major foreign policy decisions, did away with the Cold War-era “wet-foot, dry-foot” protocol.
It allowed Cubans who landed on U.S. soil to stay and apply for permanent residency after a year. Those stopped at sea were taken back to Cuba.

The decision to end it was rooted in the thawing diplomatic ties between Washington and the Castro regime.
Since then, agencies like the U.S. Coast Guard, Border Patrol and Customs and Border Protection have reported a dramatic decrease in maritime migration from Cuba.

Compare to other makeshift boats this look seaworthy. It does not say if the rafters were caught or evade capture. Nevertheless they have a slim chance to remain in the U.S.

Sandokan · Nov 25, 2019

Migrants run away after landing in the Florida Keys
Access Denied

BY DAVID GOODHUE
NOVEMBER 07, 2019 11:34 AM, UPDATED NOVEMBER 07, 2019 12:07 PM

A sailboat rests in the mangroves of Islamorada Thursday, Nov. 7, 2019. The vessel carried six or seven men and women from Cuba to the Florida Keys. U.S CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION

Six or seven migrants landed in the Upper Florida Keys early Thursday morning, and initial reports indicate most of them have not been caught by authorities.

The people landed at mile marker 87 in Islamorada in the Upper Keys, said Adam Linhardt, spokesman for the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office.

“Initial reports suggest six or seven landed, but then quickly dispersed,” he said.

Authorities found two people from the group, said a spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection. One woman with the group was found later in the morning about two miles north of where the migrants made landfall, Linhardt said.
Click link above for full article.

This boat look more like a makeshift boat. The three that were caught will be returned to Cuba, unless they can proof fear of political or religion persecution under the Castroit regime. Those that scape could disappear into the U.S. and treated as "undocumented" instead of illegal immigrant.

Sandokan · Dec 30, 2019

Migrants land on Brac after 5 days at sea
Migrants land on Brac after 5 days at sea - Cayman Islands Headline News : Cayman News Service

Cayman News | 17/12/2019

Cuban migrants reach Cayman Brac on 13 December 2019

(CNS): One woman and 30 men from Cuba landed on Cayman Brac last Friday morning, 13 December, officials from the Customs and Border Control Service have finally confirmed. While there have been social media postings about the migrants’ arrival, officials took four days to issue a public release about their detention. The 31 people were at sea for five days before they had to abandon their journey due to engine trouble and having run out of essential supplies.

The Cubans will be transferred from Cayman Brac to the CBC Detention Centre in Grand Cayman, though officials did not say when. However, the release said that CBC teams from both Grand Cayman and Cayman Brac are working to meet all their safety, health and welfare needs.

This is the first large group of Cubans to arrive in local waters and be detained this year.

However, government has been dealing with a number of human rights issues relating to migrants who had been detained for long periods of time, including hunger strikes, allegations of sexual assault and ongoing legal challenges to the denial of asylum claims.

The boat look small to handle 31 people. Look that they were trying to get to the U.S. by reaching Central America and from there go all the way to the U.S.-Mexico border and ask for asylum.

Cayman Islands doesn’t have the resources to support Cubans rafters fleeing the Castroit regime. Obviously, they will be sent back to Cuba or if they are lucky, their boat will fix, provide with supplies and let them continuous their voyage.

Sandokan · Jan 21, 2020

Coast Guard captures nine Cuban migrants at sea near the Keys. Most were sent back
Coast Guard captures nine Cuban migrants at sea near the Keys. Most were sent back | National | union-bulletin.com

By Howard Cohen Miami Herald (TNS)
January 5, 2020

MIAMI — The Coast Guard captured nine Cuban migrants about 25 miles southeast of Tavernier Creek on Thursday.
Eight of them were repatriated to Cuba on Saturday. One was turned over to Customs and Border Protection after being brought on shore for more advanced medical care, according to the Coast Guard’s 7th District Southeast.

According to the Coast Guard, Sector Key West watch standers got a notification alerting them to a migrant vessel carrying nine people in waters in the Florida Keys.

A Coast Guard Station Islamorada 45-foot response boat and crew diverted the Coast Guard Cutter Charles Sexton crew to interdict the migrant’s boat.

About 52 Cuban migrants have tried to illegally enter the U.S. by sea since Oct. 1, 2019.

From Oct. 1, 2018 to Sept. 30, 2019, 454 Cuban migrants tried the same tactic. These numbers represent the total number of at-sea interdictions, landings and disruptions in the Florida Straits, the Caribbean and Atlantic, the Coast Guard said.

When migrants are picked up on the water and put aboard a Coast Guard cutter they get food, water, shelter and basic medical attention, said the Coast Guard.

Cuban rafters continuous to escape the Castroit tyrannical regime, despite the fact that when capture by the U.S. Coast Guard they would be returned back to the island. They should be given the opportunity to apply for asylum.

Sandokan · Feb 7, 2020

How Many Cubans Will Emigrate in 2020?
How Many Cubans Will Emigrate in 2020? | Diario de Cuba

For political and non-economic reasons, the segment of the population that constitutes the engine driving the world emigrates from Cuba.

ROBERTO ÁLVAREZ QUIÑONES
Los Ángeles 14 Ene 2020 - 21:24 CET

Cuban emigrants headed for the US, via a third country, 2019. R. ARBOLEDA AFP

In addition to tsunamis, earthquakes, hurricanes, fires, droughts, floods, landslides, wars and lethal epidemics, there is another major misfortune that can hit a country and that has nothing to do with nature or geology: mass emigration for political reasons.

And that is what has happened in Cuba since 1959. Therefore, as year 62 of Castroism gets underway, once again the usual question arises: how many Cubans will emigrate in 2020?

Is it normal for a country to suffer a perennial exodus of its citizens to corners all over the world because in their homeland the doors to progress are closed, and they are denied the right to a better and dignified life?

Can one honestly defend socialism, which denies these universal rights, and forces millions of its nationals to emigrate?

Such is Cuba, due to a pair of Marxist-Leninist brothers who seized power in the middle of the last century, and refused to ever relinquish it. Official Cuban data indicates that from the Crisis de los Balseros (Rafter Crisis) in 1994 until 2015 some 660,000 Cubans emigrated, but experts consider believe that the figure actually ascends to one million people.
Click link above for full article.

The Oficina Nacional de Estadísticas (ONE) estimated the Cuban population in 2017 at 11.22 million. The UN migration data for Cuba in 2015 was 1.61 million, of which 1.21 million were Cuban immigrants in the U.S. According to the U.S. Census Bureau estimates for 2017 there are 2.32 million Cubans living in the U.S., of which 1.31 million are Cuban born and 870,000 American born. Another 640,000 Cubans are living in other countries, of which 450,000 are Cuban born. The 1.76 million Cuban borne living abroad account for nearly 16% of Cuba population, and the 2.96 million living abroad represent 26% of the population. Most Cuban Americans do not regard themselves as typical immigrants, but rather as political exiles.

Nickyjo · Feb 7, 2020

Sandokan said:
Again the backdrop of the Castros tyranny “reforms” greeted by the mainstream media, Cubans continue to risk their lives to escape from workers paradise. Five more victims of the Castro brothers, the cause of this tragedy.

Strange... you’ve hit on the only current example in the entire world of people fleeing repression and poverty.

Sandokan · Feb 22, 2020

In 1958 Cuba's GDP per capita was $356, ranking fourth among the countries of Latin America behind Chile with $360 (Comparación estadística del PIB cubano (Comparaci?n estad?stica del producto interno bruto (pib) cubano durante la Cuba republicana y la Cuba de hoy, español; http://www.futurodecuba.org/COMPARATIVE STUDY OF CUBA'S GDP.htm, English). The prestigious British magazine The Economist, in its World in Figures of 2013, listed Cuba GDP per capita at $6,040 (the real per capita is lower, since the regime manipulates the statistics by including spending on education and health in the determining of GDP) and Chile with $16.370 in 2012. Cuba's GDP dropped to rank 15 among the countries of Latin America, and Chile raised up to the first rank.

Utilizing the GDP annual average growth of 3.0% of the Latin American countries and a rate of inflation of 7.89%, Cuba’s per capita in 2012 with relation to the one in 1958 should be: 356x (1+ 0.03)54x7.89 = $13,859. That is to say, a per capita 2.3 times higher than the one of 2012. Chile’s per capita with respect to Cuba had varied from practically an equal value in 1958 to a value 2.7 higher in 2012.

Nickyjo · Feb 22, 2020

Sandokan said:
Again the backdrop of the Castros tyranny “reforms” greeted by the mainstream media, Cubans continue to risk their lives to escape from workers paradise. Five more victims of the Castro brothers, the cause of this tragedy.

So do you think if Central Americans fearing death were to get the same benefits Cubans are singled out for that they would try to reach the US? That’s the backdrop of Cuban departures as well. O wait! Central Americans have been leaving for the US and other countries. To paraphrase Orwell, some refugees are more equal than others. I used to work with Cuban refugees. All were happy with US policy towards them but many recognized its hypocrisy.

Sandokan · Feb 23, 2020

Nickyjo said:
So do you think if Central Americans fearing death were to get the same benefits Cubans are singled out for that they would try to reach the US? That’s the backdrop of Cuban departures as well. O wait! Central Americans have been leaving for the US and other countries. To paraphrase Orwell, some refugees are more equal than others. I used to work with Cuban refugees. All were happy with US policy towards them but many recognized its hypocrisy.

So you think that the 96,000 Cuban rafters that have perished at sea trying to escape to reach the U.S., have a better outcome that the Central Americans leaving for the U.S.? Since you used to work with Cuban refugees, you must be aware of the high cost in human life trying to get the “benefits” of the U.S. policy. Many Cuban refugees are most unlucky than others.

Rafters Death Toll

The actual number of rafters who have perished at sea is very difficult to corroborate. The estimate number of the victims was derived by Dr. Armando Lago econometric research from data in studies by the Oceanographic Institute of the University of Miami and the University of Havana, and reports by the U.S. Coast Guard.

Dr. Lago estimated the number of rafters dead at 77,833 until 2003. Based in Dr. Lago estimate, the number of Cuban rafters attempting to escape, mostly by sea in small boats and makeshift rafts keep afloat by using inner tubes and disregards tires as floating devises, from 1959 to 2016 is around 240,000. The U.S. Coast Guard estimates that only one in four rafters who have attempted to escape has been successful, about 60,000, 35% have been captured and most of them send back to Cuba, over 84,000, and 40% have died in the attempt. The estimate number of casualties that died at sea attempting to escape is about 96,000.

Dr. Lago’s life’s legacy was to help build the Cuba Archive (About Us - Cuba Archive). He received his master and doctorate in economics from Harvard University. He had a distinguished career as university professor. Dr. Lago passed away in 2003.

Sandokan · Mar 7, 2020

Cubans are still arriving in Miami aboard rafts and speed boats
Access Denied

BY MARIO J. PENTÓN and Bertha K. Guillen
January 29, 2020

Paco sold everything he owned at home in the coastal town of Bahia Honda, west of Havana, to get out of Cuba. He also asked for help from relatives in South Florida. In an island where the minimum salary is $10 per month, it’s tough to pull together the $12,000 that people smugglers in Miami charge for the clandestine trip.

“In this town, everyone wants to leave” for the United States, he said. “Everyone wants to go.”

“In these kinds of towns, everyone knows everyone, and who are the ones who want to leave the country. The departure is organized in Miami in total secrecy, and only on the last day are the travelers told where on the coast to meet,” said Paco, who would not give his real name because leaving Cuba without official permission is a crime.

Even though the U.S. Coast Guard is under strict orders to return all would-be Cuban migrants intercepted at sea, island residents continue to try to reach the United States aboard rafts and speedboats.
Click link above for full article.

So far since October 2019, about 52 Cubans rafters has been intercepted trying to reach U.S. territory. Cuban rafters that arrived to the U.S. and are not detained can apply for asylum, and those detained on arrival and can proof fear of political or religion persecution under the Castroit regime, are free on parole during the time awaiting for a ruling on their asylum application.

Court Jester · Mar 7, 2020

Well, at least they knew how to read.

Maybe they were trying to join the Sanders campaign?

All kidding aside, RIP these poor souls. Victims of Bernie Sanders's pals Fidel and Raul Castro.

Sandokan · Mar 22, 2020

The number of Cuban leaving for the United States, especially those arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border, is on the rise. The U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) reported 2,262 Cubans without visa arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border in the first two months of 2020. They keep fleeing no matter what.

Sandokan · Apr 5, 2020

Feds deport 119 Cubans back to Havana on Miami flight
Access Denied

BY MONIQUE O. MADAN
MARCH 03, 2020 03:29 PM

Immigration officials deported 119 Cubans back to Havana on Friday, in a flight that departed from Miami International Airport.

The Cuba repatriation flight is the seventh in the last seven months, according to ICE. The Trump administration’s efforts to detain and send undocumented Cubans back to the island got a boost in September, when the agency announced it successfully completed what it called one of the “largest” Cuba repatriation missions in recent history.

The size and nature of that “historic” flight — which deported 120 Cubans out of Louisiana — has now become the norm, some local immigration experts say, with recent repatriation flights regularly taking more than 100 Cubans back to Havana.

“That number is no longer a shocking number,” said Wilfredo Allen, a longtime Miami immigration attorney. “Years ago, people would gasp at this news. But now, there is no surprise that 120 Cubans are deported. It’s normal.”

During the 2019 fiscal year, 1,179 illegal Cubans were detained and deported back to Cuba by ICE. This has been made possible by the agreement signed by the Obama administration and the Castroit regime. Only does that can proof a credible fear of persecution if they are returned, are given asylum.

Sandokan · Apr 20, 2020

Cuban rafters quarantined in the Bahamas
Cuban rafters quarantined in the Bahamas | OnCubaNews English

Officers from the Royal Bahamas Defense Force and the U.S. Coast Guard joined in the operation to detain the group of Cubans at the beginning of the week, the Bahamian authorities reported this Saturday.

by OnCuba Staff April 12, 2020 in Cuba

Photo AP

Eleven Cuban rafters were quarantined in the Bahamas as a preventive measure against the coronavirus pandemic after being detained on a key in the Atlantic archipelago by security forces earlier in the week.

Officers from the Royal Bahamas Defense Force and the U.S. Coast Guard joined in the operation to detain the group of Cubans at the beginning of the week, the Bahamian authorities reported this Saturday.

The RBDF was notified of the vessel the immigrants were traveling in by officials of Operation Bahamas Turks and Caicos (OPBAT), according to some local media.
Click link above for fullarticle.

Cubans rafters are more afraid of their well-being under the Castroit tyrannical regime than the China coronavirus. They keep escaping from the regime hell-hole, no matter what the consequences.

Medusa · Apr 20, 2020

Sandokan said:
Cubans rafters are more afraid of their well-being under the Castroit tyrannical regime than the China coronavirus. They keep escaping from the regime hell-hole, no matter what the consequences.

there is no corona in cuba ?

Five Cuban rafters die at sea in attempt to leave country

Proud Systemic Anti-Wokist Paleocon Jedi Master