Friday, March 29

Hurricane Ian: 23 migrants missing near Florida, US official says | Migration News


US agencies say they are conducting a search-and-rescue mission to find migrants after boat sinks amid incoming hurricane.

A boat carrying more than two dozen migrants has sunk off the coast of Florida, a United States government official said, leaving 23 people missing as Hurricane Ian slams the US state.

Walter Slosar, chief patrol agent at the US Border Patrol’s Miami Sector Headquarters, said on Wednesday that law enforcement agencies had launched a search-and-rescue mission after the vessel sank “due to inclement weather“.

The US Coast Guard also said it was searching for them. Four migrants from the same boat swam ashore at Stock Island in the Florida Keys, Slosar said.

Earlier this week, Slosar had warned people against embarking on vessels bound for Florida amid a string of recent storms and hurricanes.

“Over the weekend, 50 migrants from #Cuba were taken into Border Patrol custody after making landfall during 3 events in the #FloridaKeys on makeshift vessels,” he wrote on Twitter on Monday.

“The risks are even greater during a #Hurricane & potentially life-threatening to anyone onboard. #DontTakeToTheSea”

The National Hurricane Center warned of “catastrophic” flooding and wind damage on Florida’s southwest coast as Ian made landfall there on Wednesday afternoon.

Already, the Category 4 hurricane had brought blistering winds and heavy rainfall to several cities and towns in the area, and Florida state officials had urged residents to evacuate in advance of its rapid approach.

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Cuba was slowly restoring power on Wednesday after the hurricane completely collapsed the island’s electricity grid.

Migrants from Haiti and Cuba as well as other parts of the Caribbean and Latin America have been regularly making the treacherous journey by sea to Florida’s shores.

Dozens of people have died as they attempted to reach the US by boat in recent months. In August, two migrants died and five went missing after their capsized vessel near the Florida Keys.

“The sea is unforgiving, and trying to leave Cuba to reach the US in an irregular and unsafe manner compounds the risks to yourself and others,” Lieutenant Commander Sean Newmeyer, of the US Coast Guard’s southeastern district, said in a statement after the incident last month

The US Coast Guard has repatriated hundreds of migrants to Cuba this year.

Last month, the Coast Guard said it intercepted more than 3,900 Cubans trying to make it to the US by sea since last October.

The Cuban economy has been struggling under US sanctions and amid global inflation spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine.

Immigration is emerging as a major issue in US politics ahead of the crucial midterm elections in November, with record numbers of asylum seekers and migrants crossing the US southern border this year.




www.aljazeera.com

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