A group of 13 migrants from Cuba arrived in Key West early Sunday evening on a wooden fishing vessel.
The group included 11 adults and two children, who were accompanied by their parents, according to the U.S. Border Patrol. They arrived around 6:15 p.m.
No one on the vessel required medical attention, said Adam Hoffner, division chief for U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Miami operations.
The group told agents they left from Havana. It was not immediately known how long they were at sea.
“The group of migrants will be processed for removal proceedings,” Hoffner said in an email Monday.
The migrants are the latest in a surge of people fleeing both Cuba and Haiti by boat, a trend that began more than a year ago due to deteriorating economic and political conditions within both island nations.
The federal government tracks migration by the fiscal year, which begins and ends Oct. 1. Last fiscal year was already the busiest the Coast Guard and other agencies patrolling the Florida Straits for migrant vessels had seen in about five years, as 838 people were stopped at sea.
Less than halfway through this fiscal year, however, that number has already been surpassed — with more than 842 Cuban migrants interdicted on the water, according to the Coast Guard.
*story by The Miami Herald
