Saved at sea! Six Cuban migrants using ‘a piece of furniture’ as a makeshift raft rescued by cruise ship in Gulf of Mexico
- Six migrants from Cuba were picked up by the Carnival Paradise cruise ship on Friday
- The group was likely headed to the United States via the Straits of Florida before they drifted into the Gulf of Mexico
- The migrants were transferred over to a vessel manned by Mexican authorities near Cancún
Six Cuban migrants were rescued at sea by a cruise ship after their makeshift vessel veered off course and wound up in the Gulf of Mexico.
The group, which was most likely headed to the coast of Florida, was spotted by the Carnival Paradise on Friday.
Video footage recorded by Orlando, Florida, resident Cintia Zingoni showed the migrants drifting towards the boat in a raft which resembled a piece of furniture, according to realtor.
A male migrant can be seen diving into the water and swimming towards the boat before they were all let onto the ship.
‘I felt sad. Everyone on the boat was dancing and having fun and they were dying,’ Zingoni said, as quoted by CNN. ‘That was almost a suicide mission to go inside that piece of wood.’
One of the six Cuban migrants swims towards the Carnival Cruise ship after they were rescued in the Gulf of Mexico on Friday
Six migrants who abandoned Cuban were rescued at sea by a Carnival Cruise ship after their makeshift vessel apparently broke down on its way to the United States and wound up in the Gulf of Mexico
The migrants were provided a set of new clothing and were transferred over to a Mexican law enforcement agency vessel when the cruise ship was near Cancún.
It’s unknown how many days they had spent lost at sea.
It was second time in two weeks that migrants from Cuban were rescued by the Carnival Paradise
The ship was returning to its home port in Tampa on August 7 when the crew spotted at least 24 people crammed into an old vessel near the communist island.
Twenty-one men and three women were turned over to the U.S. Coast Guard.
In April, five Cuban migrants were also rescued at sea by a cruise ship headed to Mexico after the motor of their makeshift boat broke down. At least 16 other migrants reportedly decided to swim back to Cuba.
The increase in dangerous migrant voyages on dingy rafts through the Straits of Florida has been sparked by the scarcity of basic goods and restrictions on civil liberties in Cuba.
A Cuban migrant dives into the Gulf of Mexico waters after he and five other men were rescued by the Carnival Cruise ship
Cintia Zingoni was aboard the Carnival Paradise on Friday when she recorded the moment six Cuban migrants were rescued and brought aboard by the ship’s crew
According to U.S. Coast Guard data, there have been 4,575 interdictions of Cuban migrants in fiscal year 2022, which spans from October 1, 2021 to September, 30, 2022.
In comparison, the agency reported 838 encounters in fiscal year 2021 and just 49 in fiscal year 2020.
In the past, those fleeing the socialist regime had been allowed to remain in the United States under President Bill Clinton’s ‘wet foot, dry foot’ 1995 policy, which revised the 1966 Cuban Adjustment Act. The law granted them eligibility to become residents within a year.
However, President Barack Obama did away with the immigration policy on January 12, 2017, signing an executive decision that put an end to the longstanding law that granted permanent residency to Cubans reaching the country.
Cubans caught at sea by U.S. authorities are returned to communist island or the country from where they originally departed under United States policy.
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