Coast Guard returns 86 migrants back to Cuba

The Coast Guard returned 86 people back to Cuba Friday aboard a cutter. They had been stopped at sea in separate migrant incidents off the Florida Keys throughout the week.

The Coast Guard said in a statement that the seven stops happened Saturday to Wednesday.

The service urged people from Cuba not to make the dangerous journey across the Florida Straits, and also for families in the U.S. to tell loved ones on the island not to take to the seas.

“Illegally crossing the unpredictable Florida Straits in rustic, makeshift vessels is very dangerous and can result in loss of life,” said Lt. Cmdr. Mark Cobb, a Coast Guard District Seven enforcement officer.

The Coast Guard released several photos of the makeshift boats the people used to sail to South Florida, including one that was barely bigger than a wooden grocery pallet.

South Florida is in the midst of a maritime migrant surge from Cuba and Haiti since October.

The Coast Guard said Friday that its crews have stopped 1,779 people between Cuba and South

Florida since Oct. 1, the beginning of the fiscal year.

That’s the busiest the agency has been since fiscal year 2016, when 5,396 people from Cuba were stopped at sea.

Haitian maritime migration is at a high not seen since 2004, with about 4,500 people having been intercepted on the ocean so far this fiscal year.

Rear Adm. Brendan C. McPherson, commander of Coast Guard District 7, said “The sea is dangerous. These ventures are dangerous.”

U.S. Coast Guard Several people crowd onto a small raft floating about 10 miles south of Key West on May 7. They were among the 86 people the Coast Guard took back to Cuba on Friday.