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18 Cubans in Homemade Boat Rescued
CANCUN, Mexico, 2 (AP) - Mexican port authorities
and a U.S. boater rescued 18 Cubans from
a rickety, homemade boat off Mexico's Caribbean
coast on Monday.
The boat, made of doors, planks and other
materials, was first spotted by the American
sailing off Isla Mujeres in a sailboat.
He alerted Mexican officials on a radio
frequency, and port personnel from Isla
Mujeres were sent to take charge of the
Cubans.
"We were looking for three people
who had been reported missing, when we got
word of Cuban rafters who had been rescued
by an American," said Jose Luis Ibarra,
port captain of Isla Mujeres.
One Cuban told local media that they had
left the island on Dec. 27.
They were placed in the custody of immigration
officials pending a decision on their migratory
status. Cuban migrants are sometimes allowed
to stay in Mexico, and some later make their
way by land to the U.S. border.
The Cubans, including a baby just a few
months old, were taken to medical facilities
for evaluation and showed signs of dehydration,
but all appeared to be in good shape.
Dozens of Cubans Land on Florida Beaches
MIAMI BEACH, Fla., 30 (AP) - Dozens of
Cuban migrants, including at least nine
children, came ashore Friday throughout
South Florida, officials said.
A total of 87 Cuban migrants reached Florida,
said Steve McDonald, spokesman for the U.S.
Border Patrol. Two groups totaling 37 people
came ashore in Marathon, 28 came to Miami
Beach, three reached Key Biscayne and 19
made it to the Dry Tortugas at the tip of
the Florida Keys.
The group that came ashore in Miami Beach
consisted of 12 men, seven women and nine
children - the youngest 6 years old, said
Arley Flaherty, a Miami Beach police spokeswoman.
"For the most part they looked fine,
just a little dehydrated or cold,"
Flaherty said. "Nobody had identification
with them. They had relatives' phone numbers
with them, some were in shorts. The kids
were in long shirts, shoes or sandals."
The migrants were taken to immigration
offices, where their cases will be processed,
Flaherty said.
The Miami Beach group said they left Cuba
on Wednesday night and that a good Samaritan
picked them up at sea after their makeshift
boat ran into trouble, Flaherty said.
McDonald said authorities were investigating
whether the boat actually had trouble or
if the story was concocted to deflect attention
from suspected smugglers.
According to the Miami-based Florida Immigrant
Advocacy Center, migrants have been smuggled
into Florida in recent years aboard sophisticated
speedboats rather than arriving on rickety,
homemade craft.
The Coast Guard said the number of captured
migrants spiked to 2,834 in 2005 from 1,499
the previous year.
Under the so-called wet-foot, dry-foot
policy, Cubans who reach U.S. soil are usually
allowed to stay, while most picked up at
sea are sent home.
In a separate incident Friday, authorities
took into custody two alleged Cuban smugglers,
along with four migrants from Ecuador and
two from Peru, who were found on a boat
in the waters just off Miami Beach, McDonald
said.
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