Two migrants found dead and five are missing as vessel capsizes off Keys, Coast Guard says

The U.S. Coast Guard said the bodies of two people who were attempting to migrate to South Florida have been recovered from the ocean water off the Florida Keys after a vessel capsized Friday morning.

The agency said that eight people have been rescued, and the search continues for five more people. Six of the survivors required medical attention, according to the Coast Guard.

In total, 15 people were on board the migrant boat that capsized 14 miles south of Sugarloaf Key in the Lower Keys, said Petty Officer Nicole Groll, a Coast Guard spokeswoman.

Officers with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission recovered the two bodies and turned them over to the Monroe County Medical Examiner’s Office.

Groll declined Friday evening to disclose the people’s country of origin, but the Keys had seen a significant increase in the number of Cuban migrants arriving in the island chain all week.

“Our search continues for others that may have survived this tragic incident. This situation highlights the risks these migrants face as they attempt to enter the United States illegally by sea,” Rear Adm. Brendan McPherson, commander of the Coast Guard’s Seventh District, said in a statement.

“The Florida Straits and its approaches can be hazardous for even the best trained and equipped mariners. For people illegally migrating aboard unseaworthy or overloaded boats and homemade rafts, who lack basic lifesaving equipment like life jackets, those risks can often prove deadly.”

As many as 130 people from Cuba arrived in various locations up and down the island chain between Thursday and Friday, said Adam Hoffner, division chief of U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Miami operations.

Last weekend, more than 60 Cubans landed in separate incidents, according to the Border Patrol.

The ramp-up in landings is occurring during an already busy time for Border Patrol, Coast Guard and Customs crews patrolling the Florida Straits and the Caribbean. Since October, the Coast Guard has stopped more than 3,739 Cubans and 6,534 Haitians at sea who were trying to reach South Florida. Almost all have been returned to their homelands.

Both nations are experiencing deteriorating economic and political conditions. Haiti is going through a period of rampant gang violence that has contributed to the largest maritime migration away from its shores since 2004.